Blog Archives
Prickly, pear blooms
Friends, the badlands are not barren wilderness, but are an arid climate and so cactus are numerous. Not the tree-like cactus of the desert southwest, but small prickly pear that hug the ground and don’t have a warning bell when you step into them and get a boot full of thorns. The top image shows the bright yellow blooms and the bottom image shows the bloom from the side, in the bottom right hand corner of the bottom image, you can see their formidable thorns. These plants often bloom in June and you have no trouble finding them. They are everywhere!!, til Tomorrow MJ
My Passion-Finding Pincushions
Friends, this is the wild flower of the pincushion cactus that blooms in June in the Badlands. They tend to grow in small groups that are few and far between. The plant is a small ball-shaped cactus and is often raised as a houseplant. But when discovered in the wild, you will marvel at their wonderful color. I love their color and filled the frame with a macro lens. When face to flower, I had to be careful not to get a prickly in the nose. I especially like the backlighting in this image, seems to bring out the smaller spikes in the middle of the bloom. You can better appreciate my macro techniques if you view the time-lapse of this cactus blooming on youtube, the link is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jKj6aUdImc Below is a view of the bloom from overhead where you can see the cactus spines in the lower right hand corner of the image, enjoy. til Tomorrow MJ
MJ Springett 