The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines smattering as “a small scattered number or amount,” and that is what this blog entry is all about this time. I’ve covered spring blossoms several times in the past so this spring I decided to pull up some disparate images from the past from both myself and from my wife. Certainly a smattering of different images from point-and-shoots like the Canon PowerShots, top end non-removable lens higher-end cameras like the Canon G12 up to DSLRs, Sony A350s and Digital SLT Alpha A77V. One image has been processed as an HDR but the others have had minimal alteration other than cropping and sharpening.

Since we’ve all seen excellent flower pictures I though I’d show a few unusual blooming plants and flowers from only the southwest area of the US and even the Baja California area of Mexico. Lets begin.

 The IDRIA COLUMNARIS

Boojum tree – Sony DSLT A77, ISO 100, f/8, 1/160 sec, 50 mm prime, 0 ev

“The Boojum is native only in the deserts of Baja California and Sonora, Mexico. Fancifully, it resembles a slender upside-down carrot, up to 15 metres (50 feet) tall and covered with spiny twigs that bear yellowish flowers in hanging clusters and it is a relative the Ocotillo,” says the Encyclopedia Britannica dictionary. It blooms in the spring.

But since we’re looking at flowers lets go back to our grade school biology class and dissect a flower. Remember it’s parts?

Parts of a flower

All I could remember were the petals, the stamen, and the pistil.  Here’s a night blooming cactus flower from our backyard. Can make out the major parts?

Night blooming cactus flower ( Cereus peruvianus) in our yard blooms only at night – Konica/Minolta DSLR Maxxum 5D, ISO 400, f/5/6, 1/125 sec, 70 mm, 0 ev

Cereus peruvianus

Cereus peruvianus

When we look at the unusual plants like the Boojum you have to get really close to even find the actual yellow flower. Sorry I don’t have one for you to see. Here are some more blooms.

Vine bloom – Sony DSLT A77V, ISO 400, f/7.1, 50 mm prime, 1/100 sec, 0 ev, HDR

Flowers pop out most anywhere on cactus. This one just sprouts out along the body of the  creeping cactus along the ground. This is HDR enhanced just for fun. HDR gives it that “thin pink crisp paper” look to the flower and brings out the multi-color pebbles along the background. Here’s another one.

Red Cactus flower – Canon G12, ISO 160, f/5, 1/40 sec, 0 ev, 6.1 mm

My wife took this nice red bloom with her Canon G12. I played with the image in Aperture and gave it a soft feel and then finished it off in NiKs dFine to smooth out a little bit of the digital noise I noticed.

Since we saw the Boojum we might as well look at the Ocotillo a relative of that unique tree.

Saguaro and Ocotillo – Sony A350, ISO 100, f/11, 1/320 sec, 35 mm, 0 ev

I used to think that this plant flowered only in the spring but after buying one and planting it in the yard I noticed it grows flowers many times throughout the year except during our winter months. It looses its leaves, yes it has leaves and spines during certain times. I haven’t exactly guessed when that occurs either. Seems each plant has it’s own cycle except for the winter time. The ocotillo can bloom when it has leaves and even when it  loses its’ leaves. Weird.

Ocotillo & Palo Verde tree – Sony A350, ISO 100, f/11, 1/320 sec, 35 mm, 0 ev

Of course the tree behind this Ocotillo is the Palo Verde, a green barked tree that means “green stick” and is the Arizona state tree. It is deciduous (sheds its leaves during extended dry spells) at which time the tree relies on its green stems and branches for photosynthesis. Like the Ocotillo’s leaves that come and go it seems many desert plants are able to grow alternate ways to stay alive with or without leaves. The spines keep plant predators somewhat at bay.

Cereus- Queen of the Night – Sony DSLR A350, ISO 400, 70 mm, f/5.6, 1/125 sec, 0 ev

The “Peniocereus greggii is a cactus species originating from the Antilles, Mexico and Central America. The species is commonly referred to as Nightblooming Cereus, Queen of the Night, Large-flowered Cactus, Sweet-Scented Cactus or Vanilla Cactus,” so says Wikipedia.  Tohono Chul Park is a wonderful botanical desert garden here that has many of these single night blooming plants and they host a “bloom night” for the members and general public. It is an annual event and thousands of people are notified by email the exact night that the blooms open. If you’re in the area and want to see these amazing flowers that seem to grow out from grey non-leaved sticks take the link to the park and be put on their mailing list to be notified when they bloom. It’s fun to mingle among the horticulturist community and photographers when this happens. Okay only two flowering plants to go.

Mexican Bird-of-Paradise – Canon PowerShot SD1100IS, ISO 80, f/4.9, 19 mm, 1/250 sec, 0 ev

We can’t overlook the Red Bird-of-Paradise or Mexican Bird-of-Paradise plant found all over the Southwest. I’m used to the Bird-of-Paradise that looks like a long necked bird but this one was new to me. It is flamboyant, grows like a weed or shrub all over Tucson and attracts bees and butterflies. You can cut it to the ground in the winter and it will grow to 6 or 7 feet in the spring and bloom all summer long. This one was shot with a Canon PowerShot point and shoot.

Saguaro blossoms – Konica/Minolta 5D, ISO 100, f/9, 1/400 sec, 70 mm, 0 ev

Saguaros are found exclusively in the Sonoran Desert. The most important factors for growth are water and temperature. If the elevation is too high, the cold weather and frost can kill the saguaro. Although the the Sonoran Desert experiences both winter and summer rains, it is thought that the Saguaro obtains most of its moisture during the summer rainy season.

Tucson Arizona is the home of Saguaro National Park. Since Tucson is in the Sonoran Desert area Saguaro cactus are concentrated both east and west of the city proper. The Saguaro National park is split into two parts, East Saguaro and West Saguaro National Park. Both are very unique.

The flowers on this 12 foot cactus run up and down it’s pleated skin like so many teats on a hog if you will. This example has more blossoms than any I’ve seen.

Saguaro fruit – Sony A350, ISO 100, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/250 sec, 0ev

This cactus can weigh in a more than two tons and some really old big ones can check in at over 5 tons and be over 200 years old. Totally the grandfathers of the southern desert.

After the white waxy blooms are fertilized by the honey bees bright red fruits form and hang like bloody juicy berries. The Tohono O’odham native american people come to Saguaro National Park to harvest the saguaro fruit each year using long poles originally made from Saguaro ribs tied together to make them long enough to reach the tall cactus.

So there you have it. I hope you noticed the different cameras used to take these pictures in the article. It just goes to show you that you don’t need to have an expensive camera to make some nice images.

Till next time get out there and use your imagination and camera to tell a story.

Just to steal a line from one of my favorite movies “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom”, I don’t hate snakes. Since I’ve been living in the Southwest part of the United States I’ve tramped through the deserts and haven’t come across any of our twelve species of rattlesnake.

Sure I’ve seen King snakes, Corn snakes, Hognose snakes, but not a single Rattlesnake.

So… a photographer friend of mine called me one evening and asked if I’d like to shoot some rattlesnakes. Well, living in a state where we can open-carry guns I wondered if he’d come across one and wanted it eliminated. No…actually I know he doesn’t kill them but of course he meant shoot them with a camera. I jumped at the offer.

So to set the stage a little. It seems Albert has photographed all sorts of animals and insects for various publications including National Geographic and often gets the critters sent to him to photograph. This time it was a farmer in Benson, AZ that knew he took pictures of animals had caught two large (to me anyway) diamondback rattlers and gave them to Albert. They were really excited (angry?) and to calm them down he put them in a cooler with a little ice overnight. It makes them think it is winter and they calm down and stop rattling.

The next morning he put the cooler in the back of the Range Rover and we headed out into the desert away from habitation to find a likely spot for photography and then release them. When we stopped after a ride down a washboard road I thought we had a puncture in the left rear tire, at least it sounded like that; sort of a hissing air-leaking sound. Of course it was the snakes but I’d only heard the starting and stopping of their rattling. A continual rattle of two snakes did sound like an air leak. Amazing! I would not have known that sound in the wild unless I’d heard the beginning or ending of the rattle. Hmmm. Know I know.

Perfect release location – Sony A77 shot on full automatic for establishing shot

It was just about 6 AM and the sun was just coming over the Rincon mountains to the east of Tucson when we located the best spot. Easy to lug our photo gear out to and clear enough so we would be safe from underbrush that might hide our snakes upon release. Or…worst case…hide unknown snakes along with our snakes just waiting to get us

It was a great location, little patches of flowers, sand, and prickly pear cactus all around for the desert look. The plan was to:

1. Find a good location…done
2. Prepare the site for the shoot. Drop the hat. Grab the reflectors
3. Step back and release the snakes.
4. Let them go where they wanted without to much nudging on our part.
5. Watch each others backs and stay safely out of their way and get our shots.
6. Quietly leave them and head back to town.

So step one was accomplished and we hauled out gear out to the site and then went back for our slithery friends who weren’t all that happy about being moved. Step 2 was to prepare the site. I’d been thinking the evening before about what I’d like to see as a photographer imaging a “western cowboy look”. I’m doing a western theme series of photos, i.e. a stallion, saquaro cactus, and now maybe a snake.

I thought I’d bring a prop that was appropriate to cowboys – a cowboy hat. I had this leather one I was going to use but how would I get the snake to get near it? I had an idea. I remembered hearing that snakes when they were cool would seek out heated areas so I leaned my dark hat against a tree stump in the sun to heat up. Once it seemed warm we released the snakes about 15 feet away.

Free at last – Sony A77 full automatic

Having thought this out we decided on a fill-flash and silver and/or gold reflectors to cool or warm the scene.

Albert and the Reflector – Sony A77 full automatic

Without reflector light

With reflector light

As you can see from above the reflector gives us a much more natural light than a strobe. By mixing a strobe light with the gold reflector you can get a nice warm morning light on the scene.

It was amazing! Slowly one of the critters slithered out and appeared to look around. The one on the left stayed in the cooler till we finished shooting the first one. This was all the snakes idea. Must have been the Snake Actors Guild, a new name for SAG, so each one had their own time. Of course it made our job easier too since we only had one snake to deal with on the loose at a time.

After a  few minutes of rattling, slithering, and rattling the first one seemed to see or sense the heat near the stump and my leather cowboy hat. I kid you not he just headed towards the hat and moved under, over, and around it like a kitten making a nest. We began our shoot. How close did we get? What kind of glass did we use? What speed? What aperture? Anti-shake on…you betcha’ baby!

How close were we? About 8-10 feet away.

We at times were on our bellies and other times just kneeled down. We exchanged jobs. One shoots and the other holds the reflector and was on snake patrol. Then I shot and Albert watched my six and held the reflector.

So how did my hat trick work?  Check this shot out!

Diamondback Rattler – Sony A77, 85mm prime, ISO 400, f/11, 1/125 sec., 0 ev

Not bad huh? Can you imagine reaching for your hat only to find this fella sitting nearby? So did the snakes strike at us? Well duh! Of course but we stayed out of range. I remembered hearing that most snake bites happen to young macho men showing off.

The last words out of their mouth before being struck was, “Hear. Hold my beer. Watch this.”

Prickly Pear Cactus with Snow Caps – (f/11, 1/800 sec., FL 17mm, ISO 400, 0 ev, Sony A-77V)

Every year we get snow in the desert…but usually only in the mountains here in Tucson, AZ. This spring though we’ve had a couple of days with snow on the valley floor and if I plan ahead I can get out early and get some images that are unusual. The weather forecast predicted snow down to 3,000 feet which means we probably will get it even down a little lower if we’re lucky. So it began at lunch time with flurries and sticky big flakes that continued on and off through the night.

Saguaro National Park East loop road –  (f/20, 1/60 sec., FL 16mm, ISO 400, 0 ev, Sony A-77V)

In the morning we had snow all over the cactus in Saguaro National Park East and I headed over there and got some shots with the dark indigo skies as the backdrop. The 8-mile loop road had already begun to heat up melting all the snow and leaving it only wet not icy.

Broken Saguaro ribs in the snow – (f/9,1/1000 sec., FL 18mm, ISO 400, 0 ev, Sony A-77V)

The sun was blazing and the snow was melting all around me. I could hear the mushy snow plopping to the ground and by 11 in the morning nearly all the snow had melted off the cactus. But I’ll still remember the wonderful scene with all the snow and the Santa Catalina mountains in the distance.

Pano Saguaro National Park in the WInter - f/11/250 sec., FL 50mm, ISO 100, 0 ev, Sony A-77V)

This is what I love about the southwest…all the beauty of winter without the cloudy gray days for months on end. Come on down. The golf courses are always open…except for the Accenture Open this year. Closed for one snow day. Totally amazing.

A few weeks ago my wife and I flew from Tucson AZ to Michigan to attend a memorial service for her sister. We had not been back to our home town of South Haven in the winter many years now after living in Illinois, and California for over 30 years.

We’ve been there during the summertime when the weather is warm and humid but have avoided going back during the off-season. South Haven is a small 7,000 population town situated on the sandy shores of Lake Michigan about 45 miles directly east of Kalamazoo, and about 100 miles west across the lake from Chicago, Illinois. On the map it is just about where the Van Buren State Park is located. During the summer large yachts fill its port, some as large as 150 feet long and others like cigarette boats, skinny racing boats streak along the shoreline. South Haven has always been a resort town serving both Chicago to the west and Detroit to the east since the depression years of our country. It is the fruit capital of the midwest boasting blueberries, cherries, apples and pears.

Located to the north about 25 miles is the village of Saugatuck. The Paugusset Indians who lived nearby along the Kalamazoo river named the area  Saugatuck which meant “mouth of the river.” The towns history ranges from early 1800s and then was incorporated 1868 and has become a small artist community. The population goes from just a couple thousand individuals to many thousand in the summer months. The sun, sand, and water brings them all here.

The weather this time of year is usually cloudy and cold. It was in the lower 20 degrees Fahrenheit in the evenings to a whole 33 degrees during the daytime. South Haven, our home town has a beautiful beach, pier, and downtown but during the winter everything grinds to a slow crawl. South Haven is a larger community with probably 5,000 in the winter but swells to 3 or 4 times that many during the resort season. Saugatuck closes down with many of the shops only open weekends and weekdays from 11 AM till probably 2 PM.

Cold blustery day at the beach. Thirty-three degrees. (f/4, 1/1000 sec., ISO 80, 9.8 mm, 0 ev, Canon G12)

I took a shot down at the beach. As a photographer…the clouds were wonderful and I could see snow squalls over the lake. Snow fences were up to slow the sand from drifting away from the shore as well as preventing the snow from drifting to huge proportions.

I decided to try some black and white photography up the shore toward Saugatuck and they are quite nice I think. Tell me if you think it looks forlorn and cold. It sure does to me.

Late 1800′s pilings into Lake Michigan with an iceberg in the distance. (f/4, 1/800 sec., ISO 80, 13.8 mm, 0 ev, Canon G12)

Okay…time for one more.

The remains of an old wharf at Oxbow beach. (f/3.5, 1/1000 sec., ISO 100, 30.5 mm, 0 ev, Canon G12)

Okay time to head back to the 80 degree Tucson heat, but first a cuddle by the fire and hot mug of coffee with my sweetie