Plan a Desert Flower Trip

For some reason the desert is always described as an arid and lifeless environment. In reality though, nothing could be farther from the truth. In late winter and early spring, for instance, the deserts of Arizona and New Mexico are just exploding with beautiful displays of wildflowers and cactus blossoms.

Just how great the flower displays are in any given year depends largely on how wet the winter was: the more water the desert gets in winter, the better the flower displays. Timing is also crucially important and often just a few days can mean the difference between a spectacular display and one that's much less exciting. Late March and early April seem to be particularly good in southern Arizona (around the Tucson area), but again, it really depends on weather. There are a lot of online sources that update desert flower conditions on a day-to-day basis, so the best thing to do (especially if your travel plans are flexible) is to keep on eye on those sites and then try to guestimate when the peak time will occur.

One good place to start your research is the Desert USA site where you'll find up-to-date info on flowering conditions in Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico and Texas. There's no place quite as beautiful or as mysterious as the desert when it's in flower, so it's absolutely worth the effort it takes to get there!

Turn the Camera Vertical

Have you ever noticed that most of the photos that people shoot are taken horizontally? Even when the subjects themselves are vertical--things like trees and other people and tall buildings, people try to squeeze them into a horizontal format. In fact, one of the biggest complaints I hear from photo editors at magazines is that even though virtually all magazines are essentially vertical, photographers still shoot more horizontal images.

I think the real reason that most of us shoot so many photos horizontally is because that's how cameras are designed to be held and used. The viewfinder is on the top in the middle, the camera controls are (mostly) on the top of the camera and the LCD on digital cameras is horizontal. But that doesn't mean it's the best orientation in creative terms. Lots of subjects cry out to be framed vertically and they'll seem a lot more balanced and powerful if you let them proudly express their height. So next time you spot a subject that's taller than it is wide, turn the camera 90-degrees and see if things don't look more natural.

By the way, those two saguaro cactus shown here were photographed in Sabino Canyon in Tucson, Arizona and they're two of the most photographed cactus in the state. They look like pals posing for the camera!

Zoom in on Interesting Textures

Whether it’s the soft silky sheen of a baby’s fine hair or the rough bark of an old maple tree, lots of subjects have visually interesting textures. By using your zoom lens to close in on just the texture you’ll reveal a side of a subject that most people ignore. Textures are revealed best when the light scrapes across the surface of a subject, coming either from the side or behind the subject. Early morning and late afternoon are the best times to look for surface textures because that’s when the sun is low and skitters across the surface of the earth creating the shadows that reveal textures.