This weekend Dorinna was away, so Nate and I went on a backpacking trip without her. Our destination was Kelly Lake in the Colorado State Forest. The road to the trailhead was extremely rough, but with the Jeep I only hit bottom once. This cut three miles off the trip, and really made it viable for the two of us. Even so, it was a 4-mile hike, and we got a late start. The trail starts by ascending to a steep col, then drops down to a valley on the other side. The leads up the valley on a gradual climb through open meadows filled with wildflowers. Nate became obsessed with taking photos of all the flowers, which only made a happy Daddy happier. This shot up the trail shows off some of the wildflowers and became my favorite image of the week.
On the Trail to Kelly Lake
Fujifilm X-T2, Fujinon XF 18-55 f/2.8-4 R LM OIS at 18mm, f/9 at 1/20, ISO 200.
Digital Darkroom. I started with Fujifilm Velvia emulation. This film was made for scenes like this. Velvia is famous for bright colors and dark shadows. Those shadows were a bit too much for me, so I boosted them up by +54. I nudged up the exposure and then added some texture. It was all perfect except for the sky. I used a brush to lower the exposure by almost a stop and increased the texture (+34) and dehaze (+34). That brought back the rich skies I remembered on the hike to camp.
WIRR stands for Weekly Image Rich Ruh. This regular feature on Das Has von Ruh will show and describe my favorite photo created during this weekly period. My weeks start on Mondays, as does the WIRR. I’m hoping to include commentary on the story, the setting, the specs, or the sentiments, depending on the circumstances.
Das Haus von Ruh 
Great shot!