I have been looking for flowers and blooming cactus in Arizona for a while and the flowers are out and even expiring in many locations. The cactus are blooming and have been in a number of areas. Finding them can be a challenge. I shot this Claret Cup about a week ago near Tucson.
I am still wandering around Arizona and photographing flowers as I find time. I stumbled on these beautiful purple flowers and am beginning to see these everywhere. I guess they are called Blue Bells and in some locations they carpet the ground.
I was out a few nights ago when I found this rocky area and the flowers were protruding form the rocks and I thought ‘how cool.’ Rough rocks that would shred your skin if you fell, covered with dainty and delicate flowers.
Wow, does time fly. I have been in Arizona for the last month enjoying the sun and working on non-shooting photo projects while parked in my RV. It’s been great: t-shirts and flip flops for the last month. Not sure I ever got to do that this early in the year.
I have tried to get some photography done and finally got out last week as the flowers are showing up all over the place. Here is a no-name place north of the Kofa NWR in Western Arizona.The brittlebush has exploded in bloom.
One technique I have been using a bunch is the focus stacking technique of focusing on the background for one shot and then focusing on the foreground for the next, then blending in Photoshop.
Last night I drove into the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge to photograph the desert and mountains. I am searching for wildflowers displays and to see if anything is showing up yet. I have seen some color along the freeway, but nothing in the mountains yet and I have more areas to explore.
Here is some Cholla Cactus and the Kofa Mountains.
The wildflowers are emerging!
We really had a strange spring in the Central Oregon Mountains. It snowed 3″ last Thursday and that’s after some days that were almost 80 degrees.
While it can snow anytime of the year here, it looks like the warming is here to stay and with that comes that summer wildflowers. We don’t really have spring wildflowers. They arrive in June and leave in August depending where they are located.
The back of my property has Shooting Stars all over the place and I plan to photograph them shortly, but thought I would share some images form wildflowers along the Deschutes River from last July.
These are starting to show and I hope to get there and see what’s out and hopefully photograph in the next week or two.
Here are some more shots as well:
