Once again the wildlife was all snoozing in the warm morning sun by the time the big dog and I hit the trail and I was kind of bummed that there was nothing to photograph. Lots to see of course, the smoky Sangre in the distance, a few cumulus clouds drifting past in the blazing blue sky… and a ton of wildflowers, all beautiful things to see but not so easy to make a compelling picture out of! Now I’m not a flower photographer by any stretch of the imagination, but they were really amazing this morning! I don’t have the right equipment for good flower photography, and I certainly don’t have the patience to set up light boxes and tie back stems so that they don’t blow in the wind.

I tried just shooting the entire meadow which was carpeted in a huge variety of color, purple from the mountain bluebell, blue from the columbine, pink, yellow, white daisy looking plants…  I don’t even know what most of them are. The wide area view just didn’t do the scene justice, the flower petals are all so small that they just get lost in the green of the mountain grass in a photograph.

Finally I decided to just put the big lens back on and lay on my stomach in a particularly highly decorated area and just shoot into the flowers while focusing on the ones in front. This one is the closest I could get to conveying the beauty of the scene, hope you enjoy!. I only regret that I don’t see our state flower represented here… I’ll try to get the columbines on my next visit!