Night Falls

Night falls quickly on the desert, as I learned a year ago, but taking the time to find the Desert Botanic Garden, getting to the garden two hours before listed sunset time, and being ready to go as light thickened -- all these preparations set me up for some sunset fun on the desert, all about 16 hours after I left the house in wintry darkness.
These images will be followed by more in the next post.

Touches of Color

Touches of color on the desert can be found in flowers that grace the heated climate or on various cacti that seem to be crowned with color. Adding color to the size and strength of the desert flora only makes it more impressive.
In the next post we will look at what we came for . . . sunset color.

Golden Hour of Cactus

Every photographer knows the magic of the Golden Hour, the time around sunrise and sunset where the light from the sun is colorful and soft rather than hot and overly bright, and where the low angles generate interesting patterns and effects. The effect is as important on the desert as anywhere else as the three selections show the interplay of light and form and the wildy varying types of cactus found in the Desert Botanical Garden. From round to upright and even including a runner that looked like a cactus-snake, there was a lot to see there in the perfect light.

Desert Botanic Garden

With a Cub win already highlighting my day, and having already seen the statue imported from Chicago, I was determined to collect some powerful sunset photos on the Sonoran Desert. My research led me to the Desert Botanic Garden in Phoenix, an outdoor museum of cactus and other desert plants. Taking no chances on missing the colors of the sunset, I arrived there nearly two hours before sunset.
Here are three of the thousands of cactus I saw. I will not have to specify which one was not live but a sculpture in glass. Those familiar with the phenomenal art of Dale Chihuly had already realized whose work graces the main entrance of the garden.

A poem about the long wonderful day:

RACING THE SUN WESTWARD

On an icy winter day I packed up two decades of old baseball cards
Found a store that likes to make deals and sold the cards for a goodly sum.
Not willing to use that income for anything less than memorable,
On a chill spring morn I drive to the airport before dawn for Arizona.
Our plane races the sun westward, landing thirty-eight minutes early.
Later the same day I find myself eating a hot dog and keeping score
At a baseball game under more than eighty degrees of summerlike sun.
Life can be such a wonderful connection of adventures:
Tonight I will find my way to Desert Botanic Garden, an outdoor
Museum of Cactus, to photograph the sun setting into the Sonoran Desert,
Settling for the night between a Saguaro plant and a stony mountain.