Do you ever get tired of scenes like this? Sometimes I run out of words to go with the photographs, but I always love photographing at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Arizona. It’s become one of my favourite destinations on our snowbird trips.
Changes in the weather here make very dramatic differences to the photographs. Just a couple of days after I made the stormy day photos I shared with you last time, the sky opened and was once again a solid deep blue with hardly any clouds at all.
I love the colour contrast between the red rocks, the green cactus, and the blue sky! The recent rains made the air clean and saturated the colours of the red soil and the foliage.
I was trying to come up with some different compositions since I now have quite the collection of photos from this park. I wanted to find a way to convey the density of the cactus forest.
To make the photo below, I climbed on top of a hill to get a better perspective and cut the sky out of the frame altogether. There was not a single cloud in this direction, so no sky was better than a blank sky for this scene.
Then I took the opposite approach and got close to a Saguaro Cactus to show the intricate patterns and how the needles glow red in the backlight.
Don’t get too close! These cacti can be dangerous! I always wear long pants and my good hiking boots when I hike here because these cacti with all their arms like to jump out and grab you – and they don’t give warm cuddly hugs.
I really like the saguaro image. The light is wonderful. The saguaro cactus are impressive and seeing hundreds of them is quite beautiful to me. Thanks!
Wow! Is all I can say.
Your cactus close-up is also an optical illusion. As I was scrolling down the page, the cactus seemed to start revolving
My favorite is the close-up of the cacti, where the spikes glint red from the sun. Beautiful as usual!
Really neat shot that you took of the “forest” of cacti! But, I really love all your photos! 🙂
Love the Close up of the cactus. And like Natalie says, as I scroll down that one, I have to do it again and again as it seems to play with my visual mind! The puffy cloud does add to the composition in the first one for sure, but I still am drawn to the photo most with only about 1/5 of the sky. The foreground draws my eye to the mountain of rock while the cacti draws my eyes straight up. I am learning a lot about composition from your wonderful website Anne (I am a newbie), and I am so envious of the lifestyle you have chosen.
It’s an Organ Pipe Cactus.