Cholla

[Snarkbyte]

Skeleton of a silver-spine cholla cactus; these can remain standing in the desert for many years. The large upside-down teardrop hole is about an inch from top to bottom. The wood is very distinctive, and sometimes used for decorative purposes in utensil handles and overlays for small furniture pieces; I understand it's not easy to work, though.

This is an extreme crop from a hand-held shot, and I should probably reshoot with a macro and tripod, but this turned out pretty well for hand-held. I have no idea what is growing on the skeleton in the lower right, but I thought it added some interest, so I included it in the crop. C&C appreciated.

Canon 7D 75mm@f/11 1/125sec ISO100

[MiniChris]

Sometimes I get a great notion....but while I liked the image because of what it was and because I have seen many of these throughout the SE desert, I found it rather Blase and wasn't real fond of the framing and ...well, and so I played. I have done this just to express a different viewpoint and certainly not to offend or insult - and I had fun.



Just a quick addendum...your original had a lot of noise in it. The grain you are seeing in the background came directly from your image, unchanged.

[Snarkbyte]

Oddly enough, Chris, at one point I had an almost identical cropping and looked at B&W, so your version looks quite familiar! My version didn't have the grain and contrast, though. The subject does have potential, I just need to work on some more. I intend to get more shots with a macro, but thought I would post this first, to get some feedback and pointers. Play all you like... there's always something to learn from another perspective. Thanks for your comments!

ps - There's a desert in the SE now?

[PopsPhotos]

I've run into many of those in my life. I much prefer those in the condition you show than the live ones I usually got close to.

Using GoogleEarth and going SE from Chris, I did finally find a desert. Interesting. I was not aware that cholla grew in Austrailia.

Pops

[MiniChris]

Oddly enough, Chris, at one point I had an almost identical cropping and looked at B&W, so your version looks quite familiar! My version didn't have the grain and contrast, though. The subject does have potential, I just need to work on some more. I intend to get more shots with a macro, but thought I would post this first, to get some feedback and pointers. Play all you like... there's always something to learn from another perspective. Thanks for your comments!

ps - There's a desert in the SE now?

I grew up in Southern CA and I do workshops on a pretty regular basis at the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops...and we do have cactus here, but not like these.

[Snarkbyte]

I've run into many of those in my life. I much prefer those in the condition you show than the live ones I usually got close to.

This was one of the happy occasions where I avoided getting stung; there were plenty of live specimens in the area, and they are not friendly. All too often, a close encounter with cholla looks like this:



Chris - I grew up about 100 north of New Orleans... I was just teasing you about a typo in your first response.