Ken Papaleo: X Marks the Shot: Wildflowers, Aspen, Colorado.

"X Shot" information.

Camera - Canon 1Ds Mark III

ISO - 200

Shutter - 1/10 sec.

F/stop - 20

Lens - 16/35 mm zoom.

Note - during the 1/10 second exposure, I moved the camera up to get this blurred image.

LOCATION.

1. Aspen is about a 4 hour drive from Denver.

2. The two locations I shot at were Maroon Bells and the Ashcroft area.

3. Mornings and evening light are the best.

4. If it is over cast, don't worry, this light can be great and the colors can be nice and rich.

THE CHALLENGE.

With a past winter with little snow and not much spring ran, has made one of the worst wildflower seasons in Colorado. To get a great wildflower shot would be the challenge.

THE SOLUTION.

After making many phone calls and emails I found out that Crested Butte's flowers were dismal and so were Steamboat's. Ouray's weren't any better, no place looked really good. I decided to go to Aspen, mainly the Maroon Bells Recreation Area. To my surprise there were nice sections of wildflowers, no big fields but enough to work with. Now to get a great shot from this area, that would be different, was the challenge. Most of my images were nice but I had shot something like them before. It was time to use a little trickery. After finding a nice section of flowers, I decided to use a very slow shutter speed and a large depth of field and hand hold the camera. During the long exposure, the camera was moved up, causing the vertical blurring. This doesn't always work but in this case, a very eye catching image was created.

OTHER WILDFLOWER SHOTS FROM THE ASPEN AREA.