Arizona Cactus in color.......

Wow!

My travels have taken me abroad.  Countless times in Arizona.  With my prickly friends.  This time was extra special.  The drive from Phoenix to Payson has a canyon chuck full of all varieties of cactus.  Before you leave listen up!  Yes my blogs have revolved a little around photographs of cactus.  Not only because I have been intimate with them.  (Don't twist this one around  Mr Irons!)  But they really can be beautiful at certain times of the year.  When I took this photo the area had an unusual amount of moisture.  The news was reporting an extremely high number of cases of allergies.  People that have lived in the Phoenix area that had never had allergies suddenly had them.  Everything was green and/or blooming.  Down right incredibly, one of a kind BEAUTIFUL!  My take was that this was the normal spring busting out all over.   With great exclamation I was told that some people had lived there for life and had not seen it this green.  I had to record it for history's sake and future generations.   

Shot with my D-200 and the 12-24 lens I pushed the smallest aperture and cheated the exposure by -1 stop.  There was still a very slight hot spot in the clouds.  

Rules I broke here:

1).  The cactus up front does not let you quickly into the photo.   But notice there is a path just to the right back to the tall cactus.

2). There really is a lot to take in.  

The composition and camera placement took in all the elements that made being there so incredible.  The bushes with bright yellow blooms.  Multiple species of cactus. The peekaboo light.  Notice that the tall cactus are as far as you can see in the photo.  There was a lot to include!

I like it.  As mentioned before as a photographer you have to accept criticism and input to our photographs.  We will all see them different.  

One last thing.  I hope I have not mentioned this before.   Last year I sat next to a world class photographer so he could critic my photo's.  Some he liked most he had a lot to say about.  One of my greatest learning experiences.   One photo in particular I was really excited for him to see.  His response was the most critical of all that we reviewed.  It was my favorite.  I thought he would gush over it.  He did the opposite.  Since then everyone.  And I mean everyone I show the photograph to really like it.  I have even had great interest in selling the photo.  So there you go.  It does not matter who likes your pictures as long as you do.  The exception is judges in a competition, buyers, world class photographer class critics and your spouse.