I’d never seen a red columbine before, let alone one in the wild.  On an excursion led by Dusty Demerson during the Crested Butte Wildflower Festival, I saw and photographed my very first red columbine. This beauty was alongside a small stream in the high country above Crested Butte and it was spotted by fellow photographer Kathy Krucker.  We saw perhaps 6 of them in the same area, but the one I’ve posted was the very best of the lot.  They are surprisingly tiny.  This one was at most 2 1/2 inches in length.  It was nestled against a tree trunk, affording it some good protection from the elements.  The photograph was taken with my Canon EOS 5D Mark II using a 100 mm macro lens.  The settings were f/5.6, 1/80 sec., and ISO 800.  I was able to darken the background with a two-stop reflector screen – making the red flower stand out very nicely.