The bottlebrush bush that I posted Friday has many more blooms a few days later.
The bees sure enjoy bottlebrush blooms.
This is a vine growing up and over our front gate. I got an app to identify plants and discovered this is Pyracantha koidzumi, also called Formosan Firethorn.
Formosan Firethorn growing over our front gate.
This will be a beautiful flower soon, but will only last a day. I don’t remember the name of this cactus and the app gave me five choices that don’t fit. It looks like Hedgehog Cactus but the images on google have massive spikes.
Lantana. We had this plant in Palm Springs and it wanted to take over our backyard. I found out that Lantana is considered an invasive species in many places, including neighboring states. I may remove it.
Barrel cactus are blooming, too.
I’ve never seen this Yucca in our front yard bloom before. Amazing!
It has beautiful blossoms.
I’ve also never seen this tree in our courtyard have so many seed pods. My new app calls it Ebony Blackbead.
And finally look at this Silver Torch cactus is busting out all over!
I was walking out the door for my morning walk when I spotted a mighty saguaro that fell down and landed against a tree. That makes four that we’ve lost. I was afraid it was due to overwatering which can cause saguaro to rot and fall.
This one was completely dry at the base. My husband said it looked like the base rotted out. I looked it up, it’s called root rot.
Some of the saguaro are native while others are transplants:
We are thinking this one must be a transplant. It obviously didn’t have a great root system.
Transplanted saguaros often have a more damaged or less naturally formed root system, and may be tagged or have a history of being moved. Native saguaros, on the other hand, will have a more natural, established root system.
Root system:Transplanted Saguaros typically have their roots trimmed during the transplant process. While they can regenerate roots, a lack of extensive, naturally developed root structure might be noticeable.
Damage from transplanting:Look for signs of scarring or damage to the base of the cactus, especially if it was moved recently.
Lack of natural habitat features:Saguaros in their natural desert habitat often grow on slopes or in valleys. A Saguaro in a perfectly flat, manicured lawn, for example, might be an indication of transplant. –Google AI
Another thing I learned about native versus transplanted saguaro is the transplanted ones can be discolored at the base. Native saguaros stay a healthy green.
The gardener came the very next day and said he’d get it out of the tree, but it couldn’t be saved. He said he’d cut it up with his chainsaw and would let it dry out before he hauled it to the dump. It weighed more than 1,000 pounds and was too expensive for him to deal with.
Here are two photos of the saguaro in it’s new shape:
It is interesting to see the insides of our saguaro.
I took a few photos of prickly pears while I was out on the driveway taking pics of the saguaro’s demise. I hope you enjoy them.
My husband took this photo of our saguaro with his iphone. It’s amazing to watch the changes the season brings to a saguaro. Here’s a growth chart that I found to guess the age of this saguaro in our backyard. It has its first arm and is taller than 15 to 16 feet, so I bet it’s 100 years old or older.
Here’s another photo my husband took:
The birds are loving the flowers! The flowers look like the inside of a pomegranate. Before the flowers turned red, the blossoms were white and looked like crowns. Here’s a photo when the saguaro began to bloom.
The saguaro with more blossoms. Unbelievable how they turned red!
Here are saguaros I took with my iphone from across the pool, while writing my morning pages. I thought this would give some perspective of how majestic and tall they are.
Did I mention birds? Yes, the birds are always landing on the saguaro and have also built nests inside. You can see the holes in the saguaro in the photo above that have had nests and baby birds. Once a bird abandons a next, another bird may move in.
A White Winged Dove enjoying the view.
A Curve-Billed thrasher on a saguaro before it bloomed.
Two much water can kill saguaros and with our last gardener we lost three. Over watering can cause root rot and collapse. Saguaros have accordion-like ribs and a stem succulent that allows them to store hundreds of gallons of water during rainfall. As more water gets stored, the skin of the saguaro starts to expand to make room for more storage.
To be fair to the gardener we had, two saguaros were over-watered and fell on their own. One was rescued and it survived, one died. Two others were infected with some sort of disease.
We hired a cactus doctor who inspected all our cacti and told us to remove the two diseased ones or it could spread to others. Then we were told before you can remove saguaros you have to get a permit from the county! We had a knock on the door and a county inspector arrived. The cactus doctor had called him. After we got the permit, we were told to hire a crew to remove the saguaro. After the entire ordeal, my husband thought he could have handled it on his own. However, there were two men taking down the saguaro. If my husband decided to do it — I would not volunteer for the chain saw — nor making sure the saguaro fell in the right place by holding a rope around it.
What an ordeal. We didn’t know much about saguaros when we moved here, but we are learning!
What are some special native plants where you live?
I took these flower pics a few weeks ago, before breaking my ankle and surgery. I remember seeing the buds and blossoms before we were leaving for our trip to the White Mountains of Arizona. I told my husband, “I hate to leave. I’d like to see these buds bloom.” The cacti blossoms only last a day or two. If I only had a crystal ball and knew that I’d fall during that trip. Yes, I’d much rather be home looking at my blossoms.
Today is a perfect day to share the photos. I’m out of pain from my fall and surgery. The photos bring me joy and hopefully to you, too!
Now that the weekend is here, I have one more week until my post-op appointment and my soft cast comes off — hopefully. Then I’ll be in a the major giant boot, but will be able to walk around. In the meantime, I’ll continue in quiet solitude writing, reading, elevating and icing!
I was out on a walk yesterday morning when a neighbor walking her dog said, “There are so many beautiful blossoms, you need your camera for your class.”
I had run into her once while taking cacti blossom photos for the class, which by the way, the professor said weren’t creative but rather ordinary. I was thrilled they were in focus!
I continued with my walk and noticed several gorgeous blooms and blossoms. My neighbor was right. I beelined back home for my camera and got my Macro lens.
I took blogger friend Danny Watts’ advice. His blog is Fountain Pen Chronicles: Adventures in Analog. He told me to get down on the ground for photos to get a better Point of View and Depth of Field. I took my husband with me, to help me up (Also Danny’s suggestion). My husband’s phone was blowing up with clients and he had to head home. I was left alone. I got on the ground. I managed to get myself up, which wasn’t that comfortable on the sidewalk or gravel. But I did it.
This is the blossom featured above from a distance. It’s so beautiful but lasts only one or two days.
Here are more cacti in bloom:
And a Fairy Duster!
Here’s for the little bit of fauna to go with the flora:
A Curve Billed Thrasher on the Century Plant.
My latest and final photography assignment for the class is to tell a story using six to 10 photos. I’m not sure what to do, but he’s giving us an extra week to work on it. I’m taking photos of my creatures, hoping a story line reveals itself to me.
This is a cactus in bloom that I spotted on my morning walk. I walked back home, grabbed my camera and beelined to the blooming cactus with my Macro lens. I’m using this for week nine’s photography assignment, which is called “Seeing the Light.”
This week we are going full manual mode. That means that we are adjusting the aperture, shutter speed and setting the ISO. Part of this week’s assignment was to choose a subject and bracket the photos. Yes, you and me both. I was stumped at “bracket.”
I learned it means to take a photo with settings I like. Then take a photo of the same subject with the f stop up one stop and then take a third photo with the f stop down one stop. Hence making “brackets” around the original photo. That way we’re supposed to get an exposure that we like.
Here’s an example:
This photo is taken at f 11, which is lets in more light than the first photo which was taken at f 16 — one stop higher. I prefer the first photo which is darker, because I like the way the flowers pop.
That’s half of my assignment. I’m also supposed to take a photo of another subject — inside with light coming in from a window — or in varied light like a tree backlit from the sun.
Last week, the photography professor told me I’d see dramatic improvement in my photos by investing in higher quality lenses. He said the kit lenses that came with my camera are poor quality. The Macro lens I used for the two photos above is higher quality. It was a Christmas present and this is the first time I’ve used it for an assignment. I can see the difference in these two photos already.
Here are a few other photos I took this week:
This may make it into my assignment this week. The day after I took the cactus flower photos, I was on my walk and spotted this yucca in bloom. Once again, I had to hightail it home, grab my camera and walk back. Maybe I should walk with my camera?
This scene fits the assignment criteria by having varied lighting. A tip the instructor offered was to include shadows. This was taken at f 11. The following photo is f 8, one stop lower and brighter.
Which do you like better? I like the composition better in the first yucca photo, but the light in the second one better.
Here are two photos I took for fun with my telephoto lens:
I’m learning how to use it. It’s a higher quality lens than the one that came with the camera. However, my hands are NOT very steady and I need to use a tripod or the photos come out blurry. I like the light in my Bird Buddy feeder and the sharp focus of the birds. The photo above I used a tripod. Photo below handheld. But in the second photo — featuring Mrs. Red — I was sitting inside the casita balancing my camera on the kitchen table.
This is a photo from our courtyard near the front door. The morning light made the cactus look like it was lit from inside.
I think my photography is improving thanks to an online photography class I’m taking through the local community college. I struggle with the concepts at the beginning of each week. Every Monday there is a new module online. I have to print it out, highlight and reread the material several times. I’m looking for clues for the weekly assignment which is due over the weekend. There’s also assigned reading from our textbook.
Instead of telling us what the assignment is, the professor says the instructions for photos can be found throughout the module.
This week’s topic is aperture, which are the “f stops.”
By putting the camera in Aperture priority, I can adjust the aperture (which is the hole in the lens) to let in more or less light. But the camera decides the shutter speed so the photo has the correct exposure. The module said to use this mode. Whew! I found one clue for my assignment. The instructions also said to use creativity with the depth of field. Plus I need to submit four photos.
What is depth of field?
Depth of field (DOF) is the distance between the nearest and farthest objects in a photo that appear acceptably sharp. It is influenced by factors such as aperture, distance to the subject, and focal length of the lens.
In the photo above, I focused on my Bird Buddy feeder and the house finch. The bird is staring into one camera while being photographed by me. The background is blurred because the depth of field is shallow. The lower the f stop, the larger the aperture opens, letting more light into the camera. (Nothing confusing about that, right?) It makes the depth of field more narrow.
I’m not sure if I’m supposed to submit the same photo using different aperture settings or not. I’ve decided since this is technically an art class, I’m going for four different subjects using different f stops. I’ve got three so far. I will once again remind myself, “I’m doing this to learn, not for grades!”
I knew my pink flamingos would make it into a photo assignment. I used an f stop of 4.5 which is a low stop, which means the aperture opening is big. The shutter speed adjusted to 1/4000 of a second, which is really fast. That fast shutter speed made for crisp and clear flamingos and barrel cacti. The low f stop kept the foreground and background fuzzy.
Now to find one more photo! I took a ton of photos of my buddy Red. He hung out with me while I was photographing in our yard. Unfortunately, I didn’t think his photos turned out well enough to use for this week’s assignment.
The other day, I spotted Red with a girlfriend or wife. But she was only here for one day. Maybe she’s in their nest?
My buddy Red. He’s a little out of focus. I don’t think it was because of f stops or shutter speeds. He’s a flighty little thing. I think it was movement blur.
What’s your opinion on a shallow depth of field with a blurry background and crisp focused subject? Or do you prefer photos where everything is in focus?
Have you used the different settings on a camera in manual mode? Aperture priority or shutter priority?
