On Saturday, I had planned to make a trip to photograph wildflowers in Shrine Pass. Heading out on I-70, traffic was backed up for several miles before Floyd Hill. This would delay the journey by a couple of hours, so I turned back to Evergreen and headed to South Park from Conifer. I turned off to Weston Pass and took a break from driving. The South Fork of the South Platte river flows down the pass. There are several beaver ponds in the river. These always make for great subjects for infra-red.
Beaver Pond In Weston Pass
Water tends to absorb a lot of infra-red, so pond often render as dark tones. The blue sky also does not emit and infra red, so appears almost black. In the following image, I concentrated on a closer, more detailed image of the beaver pond with willow bushes reflecting from the water.
Reflections In Beaver Pond, Weston Pass
After a while, I headed over the pass, stopping along Big Union Creek. There are some interesting waterfalls in the creek that can make for some great images. However, there was dappled sunlight falling the creek that did not make for easy images. After about an hour, I left the pass on the western side joining the highway to Leadville. This was a short drive away. The road forks after Leadville, with one road heading to the Tennessee Pass and Red Cliff, about 20 miles away — the gateway to Shrine Pass. I slowly worked my way up the pass, practicing shooting videos. Near the top of the pass, the wildflowers became more prolific. I found this clump of Asters at the roadside.
Asters In Shrine Pass
There were several groups of Arnicas in the meadows. However, there was a breeze together with falling light levels. Time for some “intentional camera movement” to create some blurred images.
Arnica Blur, Shrine Pass
At the roadside was a large boulder that was surrounded by wildflowers. The boulder shielded the flowers from the breeze in the following image.
Boulder Surrounded By Flowers, Shrine Pass
There were some Arnicas sheltered here in this detailed image.
Arnicas And Boulder, Shrine Pass
Finally, I reached the top of Shrine Pass, just before the sun set over the mountains. Here the Indian Paint Brushes were quite prolific. I made this image about a minute before the sun disappeared over the mountain peaks for one of the last images of the day.
Indian Paint Brush On Shrine Pass
That concluded a long journey to Shrine Pass. Fortunately, there was less traffic on the return trip home on I-70.