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July 11, 2010, a Sunday
near Cottonwood Pass (Stage Stop Meadows), Colorado, USA
— Up over Cottonwood Pass to photograph wildflowers
We slept a little later than usual, and it was mostly clear with scattered clouds when we got up. I had my usual breakfast and did some file management to store and backup the images I processed last night. Then I downselected the images from Mt. Evans in Capture One (C1) some more to get ready to process them.

I had lunch around 11:45. Clouds had built up so they were almost solid, so we left in the Jeep around 12:40 and headed up towards Cottonwood Pass to photograph the wildflowers.

The wind was blowing too much on the way up to stop to photograph wildflowers. We went over Cottonwood Pass (12,126 ft or 3696m) at 1:15.

We stopped near a stream to photograph some wildflowers. The light breeze wasn't too bad for wildflower photography, but a lot of patience was required for each composition so it was slow going. I just love Whipple's Penstemon (left) because it has a unique dark purple color and a neat trumpet-like shape.

I also photographed Elephant Heads and Marsh Marigold before we took shelter in the Jeep as a short rain shower went by. When we went back out, the fresh water drops were a nice addition to the Parry Townsendia (below left). I photographed some Jacob's Ladder (below right) before another rain shower came and we decided to leave.

We headed back over the pass.


We stopped to photograph some Lodgepole Lupines (left). The unusual view of the flower cluster is from the top violating the rule to always keep your subject aligned with the plane of focus. The Lodgepole Lupines were blooming in profusion and the forest floor was covered with a carpet of the blue and white flowers!

We returned to the RV around 5:30 and I started the grill.

We had dinner around 6:05. I had two Bar S Jumbo Franks, potato salad, baby carrots, and Tostitos Multigrain chips with Pace Chunky Salsa (Medium), and J had a veggie cheeseburger, baby carrots, and Boulder Chips.

I did the dishes and cleaned my Rubbermaid water bottle because I had been feeling off lately after drinking from it. There was lots of brown stuff setting up house on the inside of the water bottle, so I scrubbed it as best as I could with soapy water. Then after rinsing it, I filled it with a weak solution of bleach and let it sit to kill whatever was left behind.

Then I hung J's water bottle holder by her desk with sic 1/2-inch #12 sheet metal screws because the superlock (a super-strength Velcro-like material) that J had been using was no longer locking so super.

Then I downselected the images from today in Capture One (C1). It was an arduous process because I had taken so many exposures of each composition to try to get one where the flower wasn't moving. I rinsed out the bleach water from my water bottle and let it air dry overnight.