A Weekend In The Whites, Part II: The Alpine Garden.

So up from the truck we went, through varying degrees of blowing clouds and sunshine.  The scene changed from moment to moment, with the sky alternating between a flat white:

…and bright blue as the clouds blew by :

Those are Mountain Avens blooming in the grass surrounding a cairn.  They’re really pretty little flowers:

The changing conditions made the day’s photography an organic process:

…with periods of wind dictating a quest for larger images like this krummholz below a high shoulder of the main summit, and fogs necessitating a more ethereal perspective:

That’s the Mother of All Cairns, a ten-footer at the head of the homicidally steep Huntington’s Ravine trail.

…And occasional clearings showing blooms of Mountain Phacelia:

…and other assorted flora, like these patches of gone-by dwarf azaleas drifting in and out of the clouds:

Up close, they were fascinating:

We shot for hours, Lizz at home among the clouds rising to engulf her, absorbed in her work as a phalanx of mountains retreated into atmospheric obscurity:

…me turtling over my macro lens, trying with limited success to capture the intricate beauty beneath my feet:

Those are cranberries set among staghorn lichen.

And Earth Tongues:

…and the delicate, denuded roots of the ubiquitous krummholz, graced by Pixie Cup lichens:

…these last several having been taken from a couple of inches’ distance.

All in all, a beautiful morning spent in New England’s high peaks:

…with a dear friend who taught me most of what I know about photography: