I have been busy in our yard pulling the once beautiful wildflowers that have now turned brown and dry as can be. Also the last two weekends on impulse I have purchased an heirloom Amish Paste tomato plant, three 6-packs of flowers and a pink night blooming cactus. All have need to be transplanted and tended to in order to not go into shock. With all that going on I hadn’t been to the Desert Botanical Garden since last Wednesday.
Late yesterday afternoon I decided to go the Desert Botanical Garden to scout more night blooming cactus and to see what else had bloomed since my last visit. With the warm temperatures I knew there would be cactus blooms that I had missed. Since my goal was to scout the garden, going light with just my Nikon Coolpix P7000 was my choice of gear. Would I regret going light? A few times yes, I was seeing some incredible late afternoon light and even one night blooming cactus that had opened way early in the day!
Instead of being upset that my DSLR and macro lens and tripod were at home, I made the situation a challenge. What images could I make with my compact camera? No tripod and no 5 in 1 reflector/diffuser. Besides, how many articles have I read and told people you don’t have to have a DSLR to make a quality image. There were some advantages of going light. A few images I was able to hold my camera at arm’s length and make images that would have been impossible with my DSLR as you are to stay on the trail. Also, it was a very warm afternoon and with less gear, I was able to move through the garden much faster and not be too hot.
The Nikon Coolpix P7000 does shoot in RAW and has quite a few functions including macro and some of which I have forgotten and should read the manual again. The current model is a Nikon Coolpix P7800.
Here are six of the images from yesterday. Even if you don’t have a DSLR and macro lens, you can make some great images!
I had been watching this particular cactus for a few weeks watching the blooms get larger. It had been several days since I had last visited the garden and thought I may have missed them. I was hoping they would be pink, but alas they were white. There were three blooms on the top and two more at the bottom of the cactus. Using my 50mm 1.8 D lens, I was able to get the entire cactus in the frame along with the surrounding area to show the scene. Certainly not an artistic image, but knew I wanted to share here in a post so you could get a better visual of the cactus as a whole. When making this particular image, it reminded me of a strapless mermaid style dress with frills along the top and the bottom. Does anyone else see that?
Different Isn't Wrong, It's Just Different 