Little Bang Theory

A Weekend In The Whites, Part II: The Alpine Garden. July 6, 2010

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: