Alaska Photo Graphics

Alaska Poppies, Highway Pass

Wildflower meadows in Highway Pass, a 4000-foot mountain pass in Denali National Park, are breathtaking. A colleague and I were photographing willow ptarmigan and a clutch of chicks in this meadow, but my mind was thinking of landscapes.

I knew the billowy cumulous clouds, along with the yellow poppies, would add a cheerful feel to an image, so I branched off to make a photo. I selected a location that offered a foreground of pink moss campion. I wanted to capture the flowers reaching high--sort of reaching for the sun--so I set my camera on the ground and pointed it up.

I could not get low enough to look through the viewfinder, so I just guessed. I held the camera, tilted it up, and shot some frames. The wind was blowing, so I had to time each shot to a lull in the movement. I shot about four rolls of film in many different sequences, but this is one of my favorites.