"Foxtail Fireworks"

Honestly, my favorite image of the trip. Sure, I expect alot of indifference, but that's OK. This was not taken in the Anza Borrego desert, but I put it in the AB folder because it was taken during the trip. This was shot along the trail circling Lake Cuyamaca. What's rare about this is it was shot handheld, which only occurs about every 5 years for me. The exposure was 1/100 of a second at F 6.3. The vibration control on my new Tamron lens is nothing short of amazing. At 119mm, which is mid range zoom for my lens, the sharpness at the focal plane is tack! Thanks if you are into this type of image; it really must be viewed at the Larger preview!!

Amazing!

Nancy

Best regards Mark!

PDE

Great painterly effect. Love the smooth transition between the foreground and the OOF background.

Great detail. I like this. Regards.

Thanks Nancy Gail, Pierre, Boeboe and Arturo! I appreciate the kind remarks. As I said, even though I added some amazing desert shots to my portfolio from this trip, this image has become my favorite. Perhaps because it was more serendipitous than the others. It was taken while hiking with my family along the shores of Lake Cuyamaca. I brought the camera along to do some filming and some grab shots of the kids, but I immediately was captivated by these swirling grasses and the patterned background. I didn't have my tripod, so I opened up the aperture to allow more light and reach a hand holdable shutter speed and then let the lens' vibration control do it's magic. It really is a wonderful thing, but don't expect me to give up using a tripod!

The variety of greens is really eye-catching, but the little "spots" of brown (the seed heads of the grasses) sprinkled throughout really add a lot to the appeal of this photograph.  Excellent work, even if you didn't use a tripod.