Landscape, Nature And Travel Photography

Scale and perspective are fascinating components of photography. They can be used to create optical illusions, disorient a photographer through abstraction and create visual impact.  Are the flowers in the following photo the size of a coffee cup or of a thimble?

In this instance the clusters of flowers are smaller than a thimble.  These alpine flowers photographed high atop a mountain near Two Medicine, Glacier National Park caught my eye not just because of their beauty, but because of their ability to wow viewers with their scale.

An ant feeds on an alpine flower's nectar - Glacier National Park, Montana

The web is unkind to photos such as this. To truly appreciate the components of this scene you have to see it at full resolution. Since a 3744 px X 5616 px image is not blog friendly I’ve cropped the image down to highlight what caught my eye… an ant feeding on nectar and likely pollinating these plants (see below). The ant can be found in the clusters of flowers on the bottom right of the original photo if you look close enough.

While this may not be a photographic masterpiece it does document nature in action and reflects the pleasure I get out of exploring with my camera. I’ve always been fascinated by plants and animals that have adapted to extreme conditions. Alpine plants, being dwarfs, are short and thus close to the ground, have short growing seasons, and endure extreme weather. To witness the interrelationship between insect and plant in such an environment was a real treat. Something you’d likely never think to look for on a hike in Montana. Bears, mountain goats and other animals would be a more typical subject, but for me discovering this scene was one of the highlights of my day.

An ant feeds on an alpine flower's nectar - Glacier National Park, Montana

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