Mar 16
I led a Wildflower/Photography hike yesterday morning on the Sunrise Trail. No wildflowers to speak of, unfortunately, but we did see two Hedgehogs in bloom which made everyone’s day! All along the trail, every Hedgehog we came across was loaded with buds so there is bound to be a spectacular show in the next week or so. (Captured with my trusty Canon SX1)
Mar 15
We can always count on Brittlebush to give us flowers. The blurred background was achieved by setting my Canon 180mm Macro lens to f/5.6. It was one of the rare occasions when I used a tripod 🙂
Mar 14
There’s a glimmer of hope here and there but it’s beginning to look like our recent snow and late frost might have knocked all the little wildflowers back down 🙁
(A favorite Poppy image from a good year.)
Mar 9
Besides finding the Queen of the Night, we also saw our first Poppy on Monday! It was really tiny but I spotted a few more so let’s keep our fingers crossed and hope for a big show!
Mar 8
Arizona Queen of the Night is very common in our area but extremely difficult to spot. It looks like a stick or dead branch, doesn’t it? Click the link at the beginning of this post to see the amazing flowers this unassuming cactus produces! I’ve been wanting to find one on the future Marcus Landslide trail so Chris and I went out on there yesterday morning with a goal of locating one. Two and a half hours of searching and success! (NOTE: finding one in the open is not typical. They prefer the support of a shrub like a Creosote but a 1995 fire destroyed almost everything). Anyway….I was excited but also disappointed because it wasn’t easily accessible (at least until the trail is done). It’s OK, though, because where there’s one, there are more so the search goes on. I welcome the challenge 🙂
Mar 7
Cactus Wrens and other birds have been nest building for the last few weeks and I’ve been hearing lots of peeps/chirps recently. It reminded me of a photo I took last year up in the North Access area of the Preserve. I set my compact camera to shoot an exposure bracket sequence of three shots; turned off my flash (didn’t want to freak the babies out!) and positioned the camera slightly inside the nest opening. I then used Photomatix to blend the exposures. Not perfect or in sharp focus but very cool! (By the way…..I had second thoughts afterward about disturbing them so I haven’t done it again).
Mar 2
The McDowell Sonoran Conservancy is about to start its annual Wildflower Watch. I was asked to come up with a logo for their Facebook page and here is the result. To get to the Wildflower Watch page, CLICK HERE to the Activities Calendar. Then click on the last tab on the right above the calendar (Special Event-Wildflower Event). Look to the left and click on Wildflower Watch for lots of information including photos of flowers. Poppies captured last year on the Tom’s Thumb trail. (oops…title not centered!)
Feb 28
More photos from Sunday’s snow appearance. We went out very early knowing it would melt quickly once the sun came up. Because we were trying to see all our favorite areas covered in snow, we moved quickly which meant shooting mostly handheld at a high ISO. Noise was easy to get rid of but the color balance still needs work. I’ll blame it on my monitor since it’s past time to calibrate 🙂
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