My challenge: What is the best way to portray the "feeling" of a mountain meadow? Should every detail of every flower be in sharp focus? Or, should I use the techniques of photographic impressionism to communicate the feeling of flowers. In this photograph I chose the latter approach. Shooting with a long telephoto lens near the ground, I focused on the two scarlet paintbrushes, throwing the foreground and background lupines out of focus. This lent an ethereal look that I think perfectly achieved my goal of communicating the feelings I had in that meadow.

This photograph was published prominently in National Wildlife magazine. They titled it "Purple Haze;" I liked that reference to the vibrant music of Jimi Hendrix, so I've used the same title here.