July 15, 2014
Blue Columbine, San Juan National Forest, Colorado

Here's another image that's different than what I've done in the past. First, I selected a Blue Columbine or Colorado Columbine (Aquilegia coerulea) that was surrounded by Giant Red Paintbrush, Scarlet Paintbrush, or Indian Paintbrush (Castilleja miniata). Usually I would avoid such a distracting background for a flower portrait, but here the paintbrush provided an interesting pattern for the background. By using a fairly large aperture (f5.6), I was able to blur the paintbrush slightly to help the columbine stand out. Second, I used a 90mm Tilt/Shift lens so I could align the plane of focus through the bloom and the large bud after positioning the camera to get the best arrangement of the paintbrush behind the columbine.