The end of the Wildflower Hotsheet?

<p>http://calphoto.com/wflower.htm</p>

<p>Not sure which area was impacted (or how many). I guess it's perhaps an inevitable result, much like people sometimes regret seeing a "secret" spot in National Geographic. I didn't see too much trouble in some of my favorite spots this year (but not too many flowers either). But I've seen problems in the past and today saw a few folks in the flowers and over the fence lines near Gorman. I don't mind mentioning Gorman as it's visible from a heavily traveled interstate and not much of a secret.</p>

<p>People have crawled under the fences at Gorman for years, and most of the really good shots are taken from quite high up in the hills. I've felt like an idiot shooting from the road as others went in for the close shots, sometimes right into my field of view so that I couldn't even shoot from the road until they had left. To be honest, though, I'm led to believe that most of the land owners don't really care as long as people behave.</p>

<p>But in other places, people don't behave. Antelope Valley is a good example; within the reserve, people pretty much stay on the trails, but nearby, it's often a different story. And more often than not, it's not the serious photographers who are the worst offenders—I've seen many families encourage all the kids and the dogs to roll in the poppies while Daddy took their pictures. I'm sure it happens many other places as well. As a result, a number of landowners around the reserve have closed their property (some of which puts the reserve to shame).</p>

<p>I think Carol recently got many requests not to publish certain locations, as well as many “wait on me” requests, and even some nasty e-mails from folks who blamed the hotline for the crowds near their property. I think that after 15 years, maintaining the hotline became quite a chore without providing much in return, and she felt that life was too short for the grief.</p>

<p>Most of the time, most of the serious photographers I've seen behave themselves. It's usually only an obnoxious few that get carried away, but in so doing, ruin it for everyone else. And perhaps some of us have occasionally done things without thinking that, in retrospect, we should not have. Apparently, someone was so obnoxious as to annoy a rancher's cattle that the rancher called the sheriff (I don't know the details). Although things like this are mighty rare, it won't take too many for us to be unwlecome anywhere, so it might behoove us to be as careful as possible, for our own sake if not for that of the flowers.</p>

<p>I think it's to some extent a coming together of a variety of factors. I'd expect her sheet was initially aimed at the dedicated flower seekers, those who knew the issues and respected the flowers, etc., photographers and those trying to add to their "lists," etc. But with Google and other search engines indexing sites like these, it doesn't stay limited to the cautious or careful. And there are 34 million some people in California.</p>

<p>Add that to those locations which for a variety of reasons actively advertise about the wildflower seasons and locations, it's hard not to have some problems. I can see why she'd feel better off getting out of the loop though.</p>

<p>I can even understand why people will react to the fields of flowers the way they do. There's a local photographer advertising that he has scoped out flowery locations for senior pictures (although his flyer seems to have been shot in mustard which is fair game for tromping if you ask me).</p>