Mary and I went to Phoenix for the weekend to see family and scout sites in case the wild flowers take off this spring.  We had a good walk at the Desert Botanical Garden in Scottsdale and a good hike at the McDowell Sonoran Preserve.

Because this was not a real photography trip, I traveled light with my infrared Canon G12 and my new Sony RX100 MK III point and shoots.  We were lucky to have terrific skies for infrared.  Though they looked a little too white and washed out in color, infrared revealed the beautiful textures within the cloud cover.

Look – I liked the five tall cacti with the mountain in the background and the small cacti in the foreground.  It’s a little busy, but I like these types of big, wide shots.

See – here it is in raw infrared.  I got really low and shot upward to exaggerate the size of the cacti.  The foreground cactus is too dead center and too lined up with the cactus in the background.  There is also not enough space at the bottom.

Imagine – I moved back and to my left and the elements fell into place much better.  The mountain is now in the upper left power spot and the foreground cactus is in the lower right power spot (see our blog about the rule of thirds).  Your eyes should move in a Z pattern through this photograph.  Again it’s a little busy, but there’s plenty to see.  I knew I would convert to black and white with a lot of contrast and structure,

Create – the desert southwest always reminds me of old cowboy movies and old photos.  The first photographs were yellowed.  I almost always try a yellow version when I make these types of photos.  I like the warm tone, especially for desert photos.

Here is our blog about how to photograph cactus.

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