Spring in the desert

Dennis Ernst

Well-Known Member
Spring is here and the cacti are beginning to bloom in Southern Arizona. The bloom season will last several months, but the bloom time widely varies. Some bloom for a week or more and others one single night! With most cacti, when the bloom first opens the colors are the most vivid then fade with time. Many are so vivid that it is hard to photograph the intensity of the colors. I look for a cloudy day, (they are rare here) or early morning or night.

Even though my Canon 5D mkIIII has a great sensor, it still struggles to capture all you see with your eye.

Enjoy a bit of spring in my world. Here are a few of the early bloomers:

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Amazing colors, Dennis.

While I was taking a close up one one cactus I kept getting some movement. There was no wind at the time and I wondered what was going on. When I looked deeper into the cactus I saw a quail sitting on a nest. It got nervous and left but this is what I saw:


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Eye popping stuff Dennis - agree with you on the cloudy day approach - but they can be rare in your neck of the woods!
 
Your right about the weather here!

I shot a few early in the morning but found the morning light to be colored and the colors of the flowers looked off. The evening was even worse and the reds and oranges where now even more pronounced. I'm going to try some ND filters and see if I can fool nature a bit.

If you have any other ideas please send them my way.
 
I was going to suggest a California Sunbounce Sun Scrim, until I saw the prices!

Maybe a home version to cut down the brightness and diffuse the sunlight?
 
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