Desert Geometry

I LOVED this cactus!! I didn't see many with an "arm" going in a downward direction ... much less TWO arms pointing down in such a symmetric way. I thought it was fun to shoot this guy!

 

I tried a little bit of pseudo-HDR on this image. Obviously the sun is low in the sky on the right, behind the prominent saguaro. I used two images for this, the first exposed for the sky, and the second exposed for the cactus. I overlaid the layers and then erased the sky from the top layer to let the sky in the bottom layer come through.

 

Your thoughts on this image?

Any comments or ratings are appreciated! :-)

Devil's pitch fork from Romancing the Stone? :-) Seriously, a good blend on your part and a very compelling capture. Mike

 

 

Nice shot! A lot of this occurs as a result of genetics; there is also a belief that a hard freeze can cause saguaros to flake out and do weird things with their appendages. A wonderful photograph; and your blend seems just right (maybe a little hot right-center edge?). I like the wide-angle effect. Cheers! Chris

Hot? Heck, yeah - that's the actual SUN in my image, Chris! :-) I have so many shots from that hour with the great light. But I really tried to find different ways to shoot this guy. My 28-135mm wasn't wide enough. And there wasn't a good spot to stand to use my 75-300mm from a distance because there were other saguaro in the way regardless of the direction that I tried taking it from. So I had to get out the wide angle and hope that it didn't distort too much (I don't usually like using the 10mm on close-by subjects....) I'm pleased with the composition of the resulting images, and am thrilled with the ease that PScs3 gave me in blending the two shots. I'll definitely try doing so again!

Lou Ann, i love the anthropormorphic cacti in theses images. this one is really cool! great PS work. it is virtually invisible. if you hadn't told, i never woudl have known.

i love this image

 

that is one heck of a cactus and the sky is superb

Saguaros exude a very sexual impression in photographs. I don't remember if I thought the same when viewing them in person. This is quite unique. I've not seen one in this state before. ~Sky

My favorite in this series. Great saturation and detail. Love the shape of the cactus!

Thia is very well seen, Lou Ann.... and the composition is great! I like it a lot!

These are definitely from another planet. Well done 6/6