That would be aquilegia caerulea to your friendly botanist.
How many photos have been snapped of this sensuous little creature? A billion? Ten billion? How many images have you personally made of it? It is hard to resist aiming your philandering phallic photo sensor its direction, isn’t it?
So, the question is…How do you make an image of such an iconic flower that is different from the rest? Answer: Follow your gut! Your gut is the intestinal gateway to your personal photographic style.
Take this version for instance. It obviously is not my style, but it does faithfully reflect the vision of the artist who made it:
Taking an altogether different path through the same forest, my version reflects my personal way of using B&W to hone in on the subject in sort of an abstract way:
Which is best? Neither, of course. You may prefer one over the other, but each is different because each image flowed from the unique bacteria-laden gut of its respective author. (Personally, I like the first image best…I’m not much of a flower guy just yet. Still learning.)
By the way, the flowers are starting to come into form up in the high mountains…time to skedaddle on up them thar hills, pardner!