July 8, 2012
Alpine Avens And Rosy Paintbrush, San Juan National Forest, Colorado

I moved over to the Silverton area yesterday after receiving reports that the flowers were peaking in one of my favorite areas to photograph, and boy was I glad I did. The flowers there were spectacular! The almost-solid cloud layer restricted what I could do with the dense carpets of flowers, and by the time I had located a nice composition, it had started to rain lightly. I was stuck using my 24mm Tilt/Shift lens because I could use my Tilley hat, propped on the camera and lens, as a rain shield while I adjusted the shift, tilt, and focus. My 17mm Tilt/Shift probably would have provided a better composition, but I would have had a hard time keeping the bulbous front element dry. As I was waiting for the flowers to stop moving in the breeze, a Yellow-Bellied Marmot started climbing all around, and over, my backpack that I had left about 30 yds (27m) away. I quickly went over and grabbed my pack before the marmot decided to start chewing through the pack to get to some of my trail mix.