I bet very few of you have ever seen snow on a Saguaro Cactus. I know this was my first time. One of my great hopes when it started snowing last week was to go out at sunrise and photograph one of these big monsters covered in lovely white powder.
As I mentioned in my last blog, the most snow I found was up around Gates Pass. Sadly, 98% of Saguaros up there in the kiddie class…meaning they are under 100 years old and have no arms yet. Darn.
This was the only old-timer I could find (I should say, get to) that had some semblance of snow on it. Of course, when one thinks about it, most of a Saguaro is vertical, meaning snow will only stick on the tops or in the bends of the arms. So, the bottom line in photographing a big cactus with snow on it is you take what you can get.
Actually, I thought this turned out pretty nice. To get to the cactus, I had to position myself on a steep vertical incline…and of course the early morning sun was directly in my face. There was no moving around to another angle as I would lose the arms and snow in the shot (the snow was really starting to melt by this time, so I had to work fast).
So, I used the cactus to block the sun, which gave me an incredible back-lit view. You can see thousands of needles (aka “spines”) coming out of the cactus backlit by the blazing sun. In any other light, you might not pay attentions to these small needles. They so dominate the photo that they almost distract you from noticing that this cactus has snow on it.
In thinking about it, this may have been my one and only chance in life to photograph a cactus in the snow. I am glad for the opportunity. Now back to the boring old sunny days in shorts and t-shirts.
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