Focusing on Spring in the Desert

by Terri

"In the desert, spring can spawn from its dry sands an event so spectacular 
and colorful that you forget about its harsh unforgiving nature."  ~Lynn Bremner

This spring has been one of the most amazing springs I can remember. The cactus are blooming everywhere, just begging me to jump out of my car and capture them. It seems as if things are blooming that I have never noticed before.

I’ve lived here almost all of my life and yet I have only recently discovered the beauty of spring in the desert. Why? Photography. It has opened my eyes to what has been here all along. And this year I created an Instagram hashtag called #cactusinbloom where I posted a cactus bloom every day for the 30 days of April. That got me out and shooting even more than I usually do and researching to find out the names of each cactus so I could post those along with the photos. To commemorate this month of cactus blooms, I created a calendar.

I have to say, this was truly a labor of love. There is just something about a beautiful flower emerging from a prickly cactus, no one watering it, no one fertilizing it, no one tending it in any way and yet when the time is right, the most amazing thing happens – an impossibly delicate bloom emerges as if for the sole purpose of delighting those lucky enough to witness it. Many of these cactus blooms last for only a day and can so easily be missed. Several times this spring I was at the right place at the right time to capture THE day when these cactus chose to put on their show.

This little project kept me occupied all month – hunting for them, capturing them, studying about them and sharing them. I had been in a kind of photographic slump prior to this and I have to say this was definitely the cure. So if you are finding yourself in a similar slump, find something, anything, to focus your lens on and concentrate on that one subject for a period of time. Shoot from every angle, in every light, using just one lens or all your different lenses (I was determined to shoot only with my iPhone for my cactus bloom project).  Find out as much as you can about your subject and then share your photos and your knowledge with others.  And please share your photos as well as your experience with us in our Flickr pool. Who knows? We might all learn a little something from this project and from each other.

And if you missed Dotti's post yesterday, we would love to be able to connect with you via your blogs as well, so be sure to leave your blog address in the comments so we can all stop in for a visit!