A healthy group of Columbines I found near Rocky Mountain National Park's, Marigold Pond. I photographed these wildflowers the second week of August. Thanks to our wet winter and heavy snowpack, they wildflower display endured just long enough for me to capture some images of this years banner display. Technical Details: Canon Eos 1dsIII, 24-105mm F4 IS L Colorado’s wildflower season is world renown. Photographers from all over the world come to our state to photograph the Colorado high country in bloom. Depending on snowpack, and overall moisture the wildflower season can be somewhat hit or miss. Typically peak wildflower season occurs for a few weeks stretching from mid July until early August. The display may be short lived depending on heat, rain and wildflower photographers biggest nemesis, hail storms. The actual timing of the bloom typical depends on your elevation and location in the state. We had a banner year for snow and most if not all of Colorado’s drainage basins were setup to produce a banner year for wildflower displays as well. Unfortunately my plans this year did not include a jaunt out to some of the more well known locations in the San Juan’s or areas around Crested Butte. Family commitments meant that I would be back in New York state during the wildflower peak.
I spent some time in the field photographing Rocky Mountain National Park the second week of August. Fortunately for me, and much to my surprise the wildflowers at higher elevations still looked great. In fact, many wildflowers had yet to start blooming. Indian Paintbrush, Mountain Bluebells and Columbines could still be found in prime conditions along the rocky slopes and stream sides. I found this nice bouquet of Columbines in the rocky slopes near Marigold Pond. Marigold Pond sits between Two Rivers Lake near the base of Notchtop mountain. Columbine’s are Colorado’s state flower and they are one of my favorite wildflowers to shoot. They are a very dainty wildflower and will bob and sway in even the slightest of breezes, which at 10,000 ft above sea level is pretty much a given. Taking my time in between periodic breezes which would cause the flowers to move, I was able to capture nice images of these iconic flowers, at about two weeks later than I expected too.
