Las Chollas

[Ryan10]

This is an image from the Cholla Cactus Garden in Joshua Tree National Park that I took about 4 weeks ago. Love the way these things look in the evening and earl morning.

Cholla Cactus Garden by Ryan Luna, on Flickr

 

[JimFox]

Hey Ryan,

It must have been warm out there! I want to go out there and keep checking the temps and they are over 100 during the day still!

I like the Cholla Garden area, all except for the time I went through there when it was windy, and there were needles all over the ground. Even wearing thick soled hiking boots, I had needles every where and some still poked through. I think it took me an hour after with a needle nose pliars to remove all the needles.

With all that said, I really like this shot. Normally I don't like open space in the foreground, but I like the alternate pathways being created in in it.

Jim

 

[MayD]

Nice image.

 

[Ryan10]

Hey Ryan,

It must have been warm out there! I want to go out there and keep checking the temps and they are over 100 during the day still!

I like the Cholla Garden area, all except for the time I went through there when it was windy, and there were needles all over the ground. Even wearing thick soled hiking boots, I had needles every where and some still poked through. I think it took me an hour after with a needle nose pliars to remove all the needles.

With all that said, I really like this shot. Normally I don't like open space in the foreground, but I like the alternate pathways being created in in it.

Jim

I went out during July's new moon phase. I arrived at 7PM and shot until 4AM. It was very comfortable.

I was very careful with those chollas. I didn't get any spines coming through my shoe soles. A couple came in from the sides above the soles where the material is thin. Yeah...they hurt, but wow are they lovely to photograph.

 

[Bob Denton]

Great glow!

 

[AlanLichty]

I love seeing images of those with the backlit needle halo. Nice.

That said that plant was the bane of my existence growing up in Phoenix. I do not have fond memories of how may times I got impaled by the spiny nodules.

 

[Martín el Escocés]

Never been to this area, Ryan, but it looks fascinating to photograph. I like your use of the open space in the foreground as Jim has suggested. It gives me a frisson of the somewhat eerie feeling of being lost in a maze which gives me a further communication from the shot!

 

[Ryan10]

Thanks all. There are a few paths meandering through the garden. I tried to use this composition to create a leading line that helps break up the monotony of the the chollas.