It’s springtime in the desert and the unmistakable signs are appearing. Gardens in the neighbourhood, wildflowers in the desert and all manner of cacti are blooming. I begin with my favourite, the flower of the Echinopsis Cactus which bloomed in great splendour just under 48 hours ago. Alas, the lifetime of these beautiful flowers is very short and it has already begun to wither. In a few days the flowers will fall off. I’ve written about this flower on three prior occasions, so I won’t talk about it anymore. It’s beauty speaks for itself.
I’ve been collecting images of desert wildflowers, most recently with a trip to Lake Pleasant Regional Park, accompanied by Bill McAdam. Following are a series of shots taken in the course of our recent excursion.
As we walked along the hiking trails, I took a few pictures with a wider perspective that conveys a sense of the environment where these lovely flowers prosper. I quite like this next picture, showing a Saguaro Cactus and an Ocotillo on the crest of a hillock. The hill is covered with flowering bushes, primarily the Hairyseed Bahia.
The next picture features an arm of the lake that seems to spread upstream along the bed of a creek that feeds the lake in wetter times. The foreground is shadowed by the hill that was on my right. You can see patches of light getting through the brush above to illuminate patches of the colourful bushes.
I quite liked this thicket of purple flowers we encountered along the trail.
My last picture today was the first one I took after arriving at the park. It’s a scene typical of the Sonoran Desert which covers much of northern Mexico and southern Arizona. This desert is the only one inhabited by the Saguaro Cactus. In this picture, they stretch as far as the lens can see. It’s early for them to flower but their turn will come in May and June when they sport halos of large white flowers atop the main trunk and on the arms.
Very nice Peter. Us flightless snow birds are waiting anxiously for spring to arrive. Still cold light snow ice on the pool and frost on the old pumpkins.
Peter
Very colourful !
Another fine series of photographs, Peter. In the macros, you managed the depth of field issues marvellously. I suspect you used extension tubes for some of these. I find my 100 mm macro lens quite limiting for depth of field. I also note that you have avoided the flower colours being ‘washed out’, despite the obvious sun. Did you use diffusers of some sort? Early morning sun? This is a challenging issue for me, and you managed it well. I look forward to talking with you about this.
Very nice work. I enjoyed looking at these images.