Ann’s Cacti
It’s about time to show some more of Ann’s work. Since my last post was of close-ups, why not start with some that Ann took in the deserts of the US?
Work has been busy lately, which is a good thing all things considered, but it’s meant that I really haven’t been able to spend a lot of time working on my own images (or even really looking at them). However, I haven’t been away from photographs entirely. I’ve been living the photo life vicariously through Ann’s development of her work. Between my periodic “it’s time to get up from your computer and walk around a bit” breaks, to the occasional “When you get a chance can you come downstairs? I have a photography question” text (yes, we often text each other even when we are one floor apart - sometimes yelling just seems rude), I’ve been able to see many of the images she’s developed from our Springfield to Phoenix drive/photo excursion.
One collection of images in particular caught my eye - ones she made of cactus plants. Early April was a good time to be driving because lots of cactus were in bloom. One of the most common we saw were these lovely red cactus flowers that were visually striking.
We’d be wandering around rocks, turn a corner and suddenly there would be this flash of red.
But those weren’t the only ones. Sometimes I’d walk by some plants (usually focused on something off in the distance I was walking towards) eventually realizing that Ann had stopped to point her camera down towards the ground. Given that everything was sandy colored, it was easy to walk by plants such as this one and not realize how incredibly beautiful they are.
Others were nothing more than a plant finding a foothold in the crack between a couple of boulders. But for some reason, Ann kept finding them and taking the time to photograph them right.
And sometimes I even gave her a bit of help. Now any good photographer will tell you that an image has to stand on its own - the amount of effort you put into making the image (or didn’t have to put in) doesn’t matter. The image is what it will be because most people will never hear the backstory. But sometimes, the background story is fun to hear so . . .
Ann saw the lovely light on the cactus in the above and asked me how I’d photograph it. You see, it was a good 5-8 feet above head level. I told her I’d stand on the a big rock a bit in front of it, set up my tripod by splaying the legs on some adjacent rocks . . . and hope I didn’t fall off and break my neck, or even worse, kill my camera. Ann looked at me with that look . . . if you’ve seen it, you know what it is. Then she said something like, “Would you really do it?” I knew something was up so I asked . . . long story short, Ann had been practicing with using the phone app for the camera and could actually see, on her phone, what the camera was seeing. Yeah, you see where this is heading. So, yes, I climbed up on the rock, set up the tripod with her camera and did my best balancing act, adjusting the framing based on the directions she was giving me from looking at the image on her app. “Can you lower that tripod leg a bit, how about tilt the camera upwards a bit more . . . chow about swing it a bit to the left? Ok, hold still, I’m going to press the shutter button.” I guess it worked out, because I really like the image.
But the one I like most of all was one Ann made on her own and came rushing over to show me after she’d made it.
She was right, it’s beautiful . . . and uninviting. It graphically lets you know you wouldn’t want to try and touch it in real life.