32 posts tagged “cactus”

A few more photos taken this morning on my very short photo walk..lol.  First one is of  a jumping cholla, call this as it seems to jump out and get ya!  Nasty cactus as you can see from all the spines..but pretty in its own way.  It is also called a teddy bear cactus as it looks almost furry from a distance.  This is a teddy bear you don't want to hug!

 

The prickly pear cactus are ripening and look so pretty.  The fruit ranges in color from a pink to a red.  This one was more a purple red.

 

 

The mesquite trees are full of beans too.  This is a picture of some rip ones and some green ones.

 

 

I thought these little cactus with their fruit cups looked like lots of toes on a flat foot.

 

 

Here is one more photo of Winn that I took this morning.  Jr makes a nice background for Winn.  Poor Winn, Jr. was bitting his legs to get him to move.  He doesn't bit hard he just wants Winn to move.  This is a game they play the one the moves first loses.  Winn usually loses.

 

After my photo walk, I went inside and fixed some breakfast.  As I was eating I saw a snake moving in the yard.  I ran and got my camera and took some photos of him/her.  I think it is a bull snake...a good snake to have around.  I don't like the rattlesnakes!  It was hard to take a photo of him as he was not all coiled up.  If  you look to the left you can see some of his body coiled up.  I think he was about 4' long and would have really blended into the dirt but the dirt is covered in Palo Verde beans. 

 

After breakfast I put on the telephoto lens and took some photo of a very cute little ground squirrel.  I don't know the exact name of this squirrel but it is something like a Antelop ground squirrel, it looks like a small chipmonk.  His cheeks were full of the Palo Verde beans so he looks like he has the mumps.  Kind of like me with my hives...lol

 

 He was getting closer and closer to me and then I dropped my lens hood and he took off like a shoot.  Their little tails are straight up when they run.  I've had the hardest time getting photo of these little guys as they are always moving and they are more afraid of human than the round tail ground squirrels are.  This one jumps up on the dead cholla and gets right into the Palo Verde tree to get the beans.  They are so much fun to watch as they are like little monkeys in the tree.

So tomorrow we are off to Benson to check on the place there and get some stuff out of the storage container.

I had so much fun on Saturday afternoon with a new Flickr friend Val.  We went to Catalina State Park on a photo shoot.  I had never gone to the park without my horse!  It was fun to hike around on foot and see things at that level.  Also a blast to be with a fellow photographer and share the photo ops.  Mostly I was on visual overload and there was lots of eye candy.  Here are a couple of the photos I took on Sat. in the afternoon light.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sure had a great time!  I'm so lucky to live in such a beautiful place!!!

After my call from NPR I was excited to take some photos of this evening's sunset and hoped to get some of the almost full moon.  I dashed off to the 100 acres to see if I could get a photo of the moon with and a saguaro cactus. I parked my RAV in the road and hiked to a great looking saguaro with nice arms and waited for the moon to get in the right position.  Here is what I got.

Can you see the moon peeking inbetween the saguaro arms?

 

Then as the sky darkened I got this photo.

 

Then I finally got the shot I was going for by the clouds caused a ring around the moon. So I was disappointed with this photo but l did like the drama of the lighting.

 

The I turned around to see the sunset and it took my breath away.  I had to reset my camera and tripod etc. but here is what I saw.

 

I walked forward tthrough the desert watching for snakes and critters to get a closer photo of this magical sunset.  And I got this photo and the colors in this photo are very acurate.

 

I live in the most wonderous place!  As I was taking these photos it was as if I was the only human in the world, it was just me the sunset, the desert and a few birds.

I left this wonderous landscape to drive home.  As I passed an ancient Palo Verde tree I startled a great horned owl into flight.  This day was wonderous for me and I hope my photos will sprinkle some of this magic on you all!

I took some photos of my night blooming cereus cactus this week.  I love the flowers of the cereus.  The cereus is a cactus from south america and it blooms at night.  As the sun rises the blooms close and each bloom only opens once.  It has hard to catch them before they close up. 

Lave calls me the cactus whisperer, well if I am these are my favorite cactus to photograph. Their colors are so soft and the morning light gives them a glow.

 

 

 

 

 

I'm excited to be invited to join the group PhotoCritiques.  I need your advice on the photos below.  I took them this evening near sunset.  I used my 50 mm lens and was very close to the flowers.  These flowers are on one of my colla cactus in my back yard.

Am I too close to this flower?    The F was 4.5, maybe I should have gone lower I can go as low as 2.8.  Shutter speed was 90 or lower.  I don't like they way the center (stamen) looks and if I get the center in focus, then the small parts of the flower go fuzzy.  What am I doing wrong?  I tried to lighten this photo but it caused the colors to fade...is it too dark?  Maybe the 50 mm doesn't allow enought light between the lens and the flower.  I have a 80 -300mm marco but with that lens I do have to get far away.

 

Second photo is same time of day, a little later so less light and I F stop was 4.5, shutter speed 25.  I htink this is a better focus but the color and textur of the pedals isn't as good as the first photo.  Any ideas on how I can improve this photo.  I think it will be too windy tomorrow to take photos but I might be able to get some photos on Thursday or Saturday.

Thanks for your help! 

This little guy was in the cactus this morning.  I wouldn't have seen him but he moved and I saw him.  Look how he blends in with the cactus colors.

 

 

Now all the prickly pear catus are blooming and still a few wildflowers.  Here are some pictures I took Saturday.

 

 

 

 

This is a photo of a whole bunch of hedgehogs in my backyard.

 

So I just got paid the nicest complement from Lav and promised her some more cactus photos so here goes.  These photos are of the hedgehog cactus blooming in my yard.  The flowers are such a great color of pink and the yellow centers are so cute.

The hedgehog cactus are very short probably no taller than one foot.  The grow in groups of 2 to 10 cactus and when the bloom they are so pretty.  Take a look as the cactus whisperer strikes out to capture the perfect hedgehog blooms!

All photos taken with my Pentax K100 and a telephoto lens set at macro.

 

The color of the cactus bloom in this photo is closer to what they look like.

 

This photo looks like the cactus is offering up the flower to all to see or the bees to came take a drink!

I took this photo this weekend. Doesn't it look like the saguaro is waving me on?  If you look at the enlarged photo you can see the yellow wildflowers.  I just love the saguaros and can hardly wait until they bloom in May or June.