Paintbrush and Potosi Peak

I was battling knee injuries during the summer of 2022, which meant that I had to shelve my ambitious plans for backpacking trips and extended day-hikes. Determined to still get out and shoot as much as possible during wildflower season, I embarked on an exploration of the many 4wd roads near Ouray and Silverton, in the San Juan Mountains of southwest Colorado, most of which I had never driven before. After much tedious bouncing around on rocky roads, I found this field of paintbrush and orange sneezeweed growing above timberline in Governor Basin. To maximize depth of field, I used a Canon 24mm tilt-shift lens on my Sony a7R IVa. The afternoon thunderstorms were building, and I was afraid the sun would never find a gap in the dense clouds that were blocking texturing light from reaching the peaks.  Fortunately, the sun dropped below the clouds near sunset and illuminated Cirque Mountain, Teakettle Mountain, and most prominently, 13,786-foot Potosi Peak.