Just a Flower
A simple flower, somehow cheerful and bright. In researching it, I found out that it is Aster alpinus, aka blue alpine daisy. It is native to the mountains of E...
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A simple flower, somehow cheerful and bright. In researching it, I found out that it is Aster alpinus, aka blue alpine daisy. It is native to the mountains of Europe, but this is the subspecies native to Canada and the United States. A perennial, it has purple, pink, or blue flowers in summer.
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Canon PowerShot A1100 IS
Aperture f/4 ISO 80 Shutter 1/1000 Focal Length 13790/1000 
Albuquerque, New Mexico, US
Sep, 2017Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
On an August hike in the Sandia Mountains, which provide the eastern border of Albuquerque, I took a lot of flower photos.Time
Mid-morning.Lighting
The sun in our cloudless skies, at two miles about sea level is quite intense, as you can see from the overexposed center of the flower. Using a simple camera, it is better to arrive much earlier in the day, but I shoot what I see when I am there.Equipment
Canon Powershot 1000 IS, no tripod, no flash.Inspiration
In the hot, dry environment I live in, most flowers don't survive a hot month like August. But, high up on the 10,400-foot-above-sea-level rocky terrain of the Sandias, flowers abound, both because clouds that don't deliver rain in town still scrape the crest and provide moisture to the sun-drenched flowers and plants. There are chipmunks, squirrels, rabbits, coyotes, porcupines, marmots, pocket gophers, prairie dogs, deer, and various raptors there too, but the flowers often surprise me more in their vividness and viability under adverse conditions. I don't usually carry my bulky DSLR camera with its heavy lenses, so I rely on light pocket-sized cameras for these strenuous hikes. My tiny camera has a great zoom, allowing me to photograph either Mt. Taylor, 70 miles to the west, or close-ups of flowers. I like the way this flower orients itself to the sun (heliotropism), which is why the yellow center is a bit overexposed. I included the flower stem, showing the bud from which the flower springs. The vivid colors were the raison d'être for the photo.Editing
No. Not for this shot. Certainly, for some photos, I crop them a bit or adjust the lighting, but this one is mostly as I saw it. I would have liked more detail and less sun in the flower's center, but I don't view the photos until I am down from the mountain range and sitting in front of my desktop computer.In my camera bag
Because conditions in the mountains can change moment to moment, I am carrying a backpack full of water, a jacket, rain gear, first aid supplies, and snacks. Therefore, I often do not carry an SLR camera due to its bulk and weight. And a tripod is unwieldy when hiking steep terrain. I need both hands free.Feedback
Hike in the mountains a lot.
