Cactus Photography

The cacti of Arizona are essentially plants of the sun both in regard to their growing and flowering habits. With the exception of the night-bloomers most of them put forth their flowers fully expanded only under the direct rays of the sun. In many cases where the flower is in the shade or a cloud passes over the sun, casting a prolonged shadow upon it, the petals will close upon the pistil to reopen only when touched again by the sun's rays. A day of overcast sky is a seldom occurrence on the desert but with photography in mind such a day is not desirable for extreme close-ups of the flowers. Another flowering habit of some concern to the photographer is the opening of the petals, beginning about 10:30 in the morning to become fully expanded by noon and remain open until about 3:30 in the afternoon when slowly they proceed to close. Obviously it is during the early afternoon when the flowers are at their photogenic best, so with only two or three hours in which to work, only one or two subjects at a time, in a locale previously scouted, should be contemplated. And though the sun may be directly above, cross-lighting should be attained and can, by adjusting the camera so that the lines of an imaginary right-angle between the lens and the sun will converge upon the flower, or as nearly so as con-ditions will permit. If this precaution is taken the delicate hues and the flower parts will register distinctly, instead of merging which gives the blob or saucer effect.

The subject matter should be selected for its accessibility as well as attractiveness to facilitate the manipulations of the camera and tripod, such as a projected branch, bearing a flower or cluster, so that in the viewfinder the desired pattern can be accomplished by isolating the principals from the other members of the plant. An artist's background or window showcard may be placed in back of the subject to exclude extraneous detail that cannot be brought into focus, a step that enhances the glamour of the flower.

The flower season begins on the desert in late March. Just to upset the rules however, a new discovery has been made, adding a new variety to the cactus family, that puts forth its chartreuse-green flowers in late February, to remain open several days, with the blooming period lasting through March. In alluding to the color of the flowers I refer to the plant as the Chartreuse Hedgehog but the discoverer and botanists choose to call it the Echinomastus Johnsonii, varient Arizonicus; (excuse me please).

The Beavertails with their satiny-pink or red flowers are usually the first to blossom out in the Spring, cropping out in late March and April with the season overlapping the Strawberry Hedgehogs that begin to flower in early April and continue through May. This is the time when the greatest variety of cacti are in bloom in Arizona. The Spring crop tapers off into June with a few tardy flowers from all of them and a final outburst of blossoms from the Sweet Potato Cactus, Arizona's famous Night-Bloomer, and several other night blooming cacti including the celebrated Saguaro. A few Pincushions and Chollas do some late flowering through July, as do the tiny Fishhooks, in a few scattered areas. August and September bring on the late summer flowers of the Barrel cacti, in clusters and coronas of red, yellow, pink and orange at the top of the fat and heavy plants. Alongside the road between Tucson and Benson, Arizona, is a healthy growth of the Barrels whose bouquets are large enough and of the right height to permit easy approach, promising good results, with the use of the simplest sort of camera.

The flowering habits of cacti, however, do not run true to form so it is well to bear in mind that I am not offering a fool proof set of rules for photographers. A calendar or some sort of schedule for flowers could be of some value but none to reliable. The trouble with printed formulae is that the cacti cannot read so do not always behave as might be expected; nature will not conform to a statute of limitations. As an example of inconsistency, the flowers at times, contrary to the rules, remain open until the sun goes down or may proceed to open just before dark to last only a few minutes before closing, and all on

CACTUS PHOTOGRAPHY

the same plant. And just to be different from the rest, a few of the night-bloomers will remain open all the following day.

The flower colors of most day-bloomers are in a constant state of change throughout the day causing a great deal of debate among amateur photographers who are not aware of this natural phenomenon, each feeling that his own color rendition is correct and the other fellow's is wrong. I doubt if any two color transparencies, even of the same flower, would match unless the exposures were made simultaneously. Nature does not remain fixed and even the sun's moving rays affect the density of the colors reflected by a flower but usually without detection by the unwary photographer. It may be supposed, however, that the colors as recorded at the instance of tripping the shutters are correct if the mechanical factors involved are also correct; the final transparency representing the true colors of the flowers that occurred at the time of exposure though not necessarily those before nor after.

There are a few cacti whose flowers naturally remain open for several days and nights and are not dependent upon the sun's ray to expand the petals. One is the Claret Cup that blooms in April and May up in the Petrified Forest and the regions around Fort Defiance but much later in New Mexico and Texas, depending upon the climate and the altitude. The plants are about eight inches in height consisting of from one to fifteen stems that branch from the base giving them the aspect of a cluster of large green bananas. Some of the clusters are grouped together forming large clumps of from ten to twenty feet across, lending themselves admirably to a habitat or landscape shot when they are thickly studded with hundreds of the red cup-like flowers. Each of the stems bears three or four flowers at a time, presenting a beautiful arrangement for an extreme close-up portrait. A black or dark-green show-card placed in the back flat on the ground or held upright by a companion seems to give a third dimension effect in the glancing rays of the early morning or evening sunshine. The Claret Cup is one of the numerous Hedgehog Cacti and is technically classified as the Echinocereus Triglochi-diatus.

An early heat wave that rarely comes to the desert in Arizona but did last year may force the flower buds to develop simultaneously and bring the season to an abrupt and early end so one should be on the alert to the possibility of the entire Spring crop of flowers being lost to photography.

The whims of Nature as I have touched upon them here is merely the picture of cactus photography as I see it and not based on scientific facts but my experience teaches me, at least, that with the idea of acquiring a sizeable collection of flower portraits and all in a season one should make frequent trips to the desert, scouting a wide range of territory, throughout the season and work with the law of averages. So much for the flowering habits of cacti. The road leading west out of Congress Junction, passes through Beavertail territory where the first cactus flowers of March and April abound over a wide area, increasing in numbers toward the Colorado river and north towards Kingman. The Beavertail flowers are

probably the most attractive of all the prickly pears. A protruded pad bearing three or more blossoms should be selected with perhaps another pad that fills in most of the background. In the back of it all may be placed a showcard of a pastel blue that harmonizes with the pink blossoms and the lead-blue of the pads. Deeper contrasts in color arrangements are effected by the use of a dark-blue or dark-green background. The close-up will require a long exposure at one of the lowest apertures, for a tenth second or longer, but the flower tubes are fairly stable so a stiff breeze is not apt to cause movement.

Before the Beavertail flowers begin to disappear the bristly little Hedgehogs begin to dot the desert everywhere with purple, pink and red petals and in April they are at their blooming best. North of Phoenix, between Cave Creek and Camp Creek is the longest stretch of the Purple Hedgehogs, and close to the highway, that I know of. Several plants forming wide clumps of scattered groups are ideally situated for better pictorial habitats than the usual dispersion of single plants elsewhere on the desert, and for some reason or other the flowers of the Hedgehogs in this area are always the largest and most numerous; at least that's the way it seems to me. The low growing plants should not be shot from above, that is to get the flower detail, as the dark flowers and spiny stems blend with the ground. The desired low angle is accomplished by gettting right down to earth with the knees gouging the dirt while the hands steady the tripod that will be sprawled out flat. The cardboard background may be placed flat on the ground or held upright by a companion and its color should contrast with the purple in the flower. Two or three of the stems are easily separated from the main group by manipulating the viewfinder and focusing on one, two or three flowers of one stem. The flowers of the hedgehogs are rather firm and short and not easily disturbed by a gust of wind, so the long exposure at a low stop that is essential for depth of focus at close range, is easily accomplished. The flowers of the Purple and Strawberry Hedgehogs are about the showiest of all the desert cacti in the spring.

In regard to the afore-mentioned Chartreuse Hedgehogs that were found to bloom in February, they grow in the regions around Yuma and north along the Colorado river. They are sparse and inconspicuous so a great deal of hiking and searching out of the dark spined stems will be necessary in order to find one. Because of the green that is rare in cactus flowers they are well worth the effort. The photographic technique for the Chartreuse Hedgehogs is the same as described in the case of the Purple and Strawberry Hedgehogs.

The tree-like cactus whose upper branches are arranged in sausage-like links produces the greatest variety of flower colors. There are several distinct species, each tagged with a separate botanical name but they are all collectively called Chollas, (pronounced cho'-yas). One in particular whose flower colors are the extreme in variability is the Opuntia Versicolor, better known as Staghorn Cholla. The species is scattered over most of Southeastern Arizona where, along the highways, dense forests or a few scattered groups may be noticed. While they are of easy reach by automobile from the cities and towns they are also very difficult to photograph. The flowers have a way of merging with the divaricately branched arms of the plant and in the breeze the limber joints will sway in all directions, so a day of calm and cloudless weather is essential for shooting the flowers at close range. A freely extended branch, with absolutely nothing in the background but the showcard, bearing two or three blossoms near the tip must be found before a close-up is at all possible without the interlacing joints bobbing in the shadows causing blobs and splotches. The field should be scouted for the most isolated branch bearing a clean cut bouquet or a single flower. After the preliminaries of focusing (preferably through a ground glass focusing panel), one may have to wait and be on the alert for that one fleeting moment of stillness for the time to trip the shutter. If a cloud interferes with the light some more waiting will be in order. A lot of patience is necessary to work with such material. It is futile to sacrifice depth of focus through the slow exposures to gain an increase in speed at a larger lens opening, if the weather will not permit the low stops and long exposures that are so essential to clear cut detail it is best to postpone the project until some other time. Often I spend a couple of hours with a subject before getting in one shot, or several trips to various regions before anything is accomplished at all, but the Chollas are prolific bloomers throughout April and May so there is plenty of time to scout the desert for suitable working conditions and the hundreds of color combinations that the

The Saguaro is the state flower of Arizona. Truly a majestic plant, the blossoms are both night and day.

The Sweet Potato Cactus is also Arizona's Queen of the Night. It flowers during April, May and June.

flowers provide. The cause for this profusion of colors is in the method of pollination of the flowers which are not self fertile. The pollen ripens before the stigma becomes receptive, when the stigma is receptive the pollen is no longer fertile so it is up to the bees to bring in the pollen from the flowers of other chollas of the same group, that are ripe to those whose stigmas are in a receptive mood. This crossing and criss-crossing results in a multitude of color combinations. In a slide collection it may be necessary to classify the various Staghorn Cholla subjects according to the color of the flowers, such as Red Cholla, Green Cholla, Peach Cholla, Terracotta Cholla and so on as the colors go. The Saguaros or Giant Cacti are scattered over practically all the desert regions of Southern Arizona, the white waxy flowers are nocturnal but remain open most of the following day. The close-ups should be completed before ten-thirty in the morning when the flowers begin to close and the heat of the sun begins to mar the delicate petals causing a rather ragged appearance. On cool or cloudy days the flowers do not suffer so badly and the petals remain open much longer, but photography without sunlight or other direct lighting produces somewhat flat and lifeless pictures. The hypanthium tube of the Saguaro flowers contain lots of nectar, attracting swarms of bees, but care should be taken to keep them out of the picture else the flowers will be spotted with dark blurs; only once have I been able to record a bee during dead stillness on the flower. The fact of the matter is that bees, to me, are the perfect nuisance, but if a bee you must have, as some people seem to think they'd like, then bees you may have and plenty of, in shooting the cacti of Arizona. In the Saguaro Forest at Tucson there are a few low hanging arms at the ends of which are borne the flower clusters within easy reach for close-up work using an average tripod, some times only a foot or two off the ground, where the colored card may be placed so that one may focus and shoot from above, and if a companion is handy to hold the background the exposure can be made at a low angle in case one is choosey about working conditions. The Saguaro shots are a little faster because of the larger flower clusters that will fill up the frame at a relatively long range, usually one-tenth second at f.12 using Ektachrome or Kodachrome film or one-hundredth second at f.12 for black and white, and about double the speed with the use of a miniature camera because of the short focal length lens that transmits more light than my five and one-half inch Rodenstock Tinar with the long bellows of the Speed Graphic racked out. Near Bartlet Dam, about fifty miles northeast of Phoenix there is another good growth of Saguaros where the low hanging arms are offering their bouquets to the carefree sightseers who like to get their snaps merely for the folks back home, then move to some thing else. Late April through May is the peak of the Saguaro flowering period but if you should miss out on them there are a few stragglers in June. To reach the

flowers of the normally upturned arms I rig up a make-shift scaffold of two twelve foot step-ladders topped by a good substantial board. This with a five foot tripod enables me to reach the flowers at about fifteen feet above ground. A blue card is wired to the back of the thick arm extending laterally just enough to fill the angle of view and block out other arms that are too far back to be focused clearly. If it is a night shot the preliminaries are attended to by the light of a gasoline lantern and the exposure made by photoflash. This sort of photography necessitates an assistant so it's either the wife or I who does the dirty work while the other snaps the shutters. Obviously this smacks of a lot of hard work and as a matter of fact serious cactus photography is hard work so the efforts of two people can surely facilitate matters a great deal, although the work is not necessarily highly skilled. The waxy appearance of the Saguaro flowers may be captured in the morning when the sunlight glances over it at a slight angle.

The famous Sweet Potato Cactus of Arizona has the reputation of being hard to find, but as a matter of fact, they abound in great numbers. Once you have spotted one or two they seem to pop up all around. The grey or green slender, and fluted stems merge with the other nearby vegetation and if out in the open they attain little height, become somewhat sprawly, all of which is a protection against the elements and small animals (and very effective against detection by human beings). It takes a keen eye to pick them out but after the first one is discovered the rest come easy. They may be found mostly under trees or other large shrubs, depending upon the roosting habits of the birds who eat the seeds and distribute the species over a wide range though in scattered spots and chiefly near the gathering places of large flocks. A wide growth of this night blooming cactus can be found in the region between Pinnacle Peak and the Verde River. Pichacho Peak northwest of Tucson, is another good spot and on both sides of the road between Tucson and Benson. But remember Arizona's Queen of the Night (not The Queen of the Night, nor The Night Blooming Cereus), does not beckon by whistle or bell so you'll have to do some sly snooping around to find one and that should be done in the daytime. After locating a plant with a few buds showing white at the tips you may be sure that it will open that night. The petals begin to expand soon after sun-down so every thing should be arranged beforehand such as clearing out brush and other obstructions that interfere with manipulations of the tripod. A background may not be needed in the black of night but a black board can be slipped in between the flowers and the lacy nearby shrubbery if desired. In the case of using color film a photoflash will be essential, but a fast black and white film can be exposed by a gasoline lantern, or if working in the open, the headlights of a car can be made to suffice because the flowers occur in May and June when the evenings are usually calm and still making a long exposure of say, "one second at f.16," very simple. The flowers remain open until about eight o'clock the following morning in case one prefers to get out and work with the sunlight which, of course, is far more satisfactory than flashlight shooting. Besides the name Sweet Potato Cactus (an allusion to the large potato-like root), Arizona's celebrated night-blooming cactus goes by the high-falutin' name of Peniocereus Greggii, meaning Gregg's Thread Cereus.

But remember Arizona's Queen of the Night (not The Queen of the Night, nor The Night Blooming Cereus), does not beckon by whistle or bell so you'll have to do some sly snooping around to find one and that should be done in the daytime. After locating a plant with a few buds showing white at the tips you may be sure that it will open that night. The petals begin to expand soon after sun-down so every thing should be arranged beforehand such as clearing out brush and other obstructions that interfere with manipulations of the tripod. A background may not be needed in the black of night but a black board can be slipped in between the flowers and the lacy nearby shrubbery if desired. In the case of using color film a photoflash will be essential, but a fast black and white film can be exposed by a gasoline lantern, or if working in the open, the headlights of a car can be made to suffice because the flowers occur in May and June when the evenings are usually calm and still making a long exposure of say, "one second at f.16," very simple. The flowers remain open until about eight o'clock the following morning in case one prefers to get out and work with the sunlight which, of course, is far more satisfactory than flashlight shooting. Besides the name Sweet Potato Cactus (an al-lusion to the large potato-like root), Arizona's celebrated night-blooming cactus goes by the high-falutin' name of Peniocereus Greggii, meaning Gregg's Thread Cereus.

The Pincushion or Fishhook cacti are the babies of the desert clan. Some may be found in sparsely scattered

groups but more often than not they appear singly under larger plants. Most anywhere on the Arizona desert there is some form or another but like the Night Bloom-ers, much searching around is necessary to find them. The cylindrical stems of the Fishhook varieties are about three inches in height, occuring in singles or clumps of two or more. The spherical Pincushions or Coryphanthas (meaning flowers at the top), are from two to four inches in diameter and occur in singles or large clumps of from two to twenty-five balls to the cluster. The tiny tiny one inch wide pink and lavender flowers usually form circles at the top of the stems, cropping out in April, on some, then July and August on others; in fact some form or another is blooming all Summer, but the scarce few that grow in the open are the only ones suited for photography. The artificial background may be dropped flat on the ground to exclude the grass or other unwanted matter and the tripod will have to be sprawled flat on the ground to maneuver the camera in close. The bellows of a larger camera such as my Speed Graphic must be racked out to its fullest extent necessitating the longest exposure at the smallest stop to obtain sharp detail at so close range. A miniature camera with a telephoto lens would probably be simpler with less critical focusing but at any rate this is knee work and the operator will have to get down to Ma Earth. Even in the bright light of the desert sun, that hovers around four hundred on my Weston light-meter, the extreme close-up of so small a bouquet will indicate the prolonged exposure of one-half second at f.32 using color film. It goes without saying that the closer the subject the slower the speed of the lens.

There's hardly a mile alongside any desert road that some form of Prickly Pear doesn't abound, especially the common variety of Opuntia Engelmannii. The big yellow and orange flowers are borne along the upper edges of the spiny pads in rows of three to eight. In late April and all of May the flower clusters are most numerous and a projected pad or two is no problem to find for easy manipulation of the camera.

The hairy little white Grizzly Bears and Porcupine cacti are spread out intermittently in the regions around Prescott and again in the Grand Canyon country. The tiny flowers are yellowish pink, peeping out from among the mass of long white hairs during April and May. The hairy spines and not the small flowers make them popular, at least from a collector's point of view, so as a specimen, one should be included in a slide collection for the Ahs and Ohs it arouses whether it bears flowers or not. The white spines stand out best against a black background and will be lost entirely against the natural surroundings.

The Orchid Cacti do not grow on the desert. Being cultivated hybrids of two or more cacti from Mexico and South America, they are grown in pots that may be moved about and photographed under controlled conditions. The flowers are large and remain open several days and nights and may fill the view finder at considerable distance, al-lowing more latitude for focusing and exposure time. Like most cacti the hybrid Orchids bloom throughout Spring. In Arizona the collecting and growing of these plants is a hobby in itself but the tourist who does not care to barge in on a private grower may visit the Desert Botanical Gardens at Phoenix where a permit will be granted for the purpose of making pictures.

Of the eighteen hundred to two thousand species in the family Cactaceae about eighty-six are native to Arizona and only a scant few are exclusive to the state, but practically tically all the family with very few exceptions are in cul-tivation which with the native species make Arizona the cactus showplace of America. Mexico is the classical home of the cacti with the distributional range spreading north into Canada and south to the southern tip of Argentina but their natural habitats are most too far remote to be reached by the traveling public. Visitors to Arizona who for various reasons prefer not to scout the desert or ven-ture far from the automobile door will find practically everything in the cactus world represented at the Desert Botanical Garden at Phoenix, The Southwestern Arbore-tum at Superior and a huge display of native plants at the University of Arizona at Tucson. Collectively these gardens contain just about all the cactus species of the Western Hemisphere within easy reach for the traveling public who must snap their pictures without too much fuss and bother with hopes of getting a sizeable collection of flower slides or prints without traversing the Western Hemisphere.

Obviously, I could not enumerate all the subjects in the cactus family, nor dwell üpon the various problems in photography connected with them but the few I have touched upon are the best examples and may be consid-ered as a general working basis basis. The technique for all is more or less the same, differing only with the height of the plants that may be divided into three classifications, viz, the low ones such as the Pincushions and the Hedge-hogs, the tall ones such as the Saguaros and Organpipes, and the mediums such as the Chollas and Prickly Pears. It's really getting down to earth when shooting the low ones and up in the air to reach the tall ones (or find low hanging branches), but those of medium height are easily reached and with the use of the average tripod.

The technical details may vary with the require-ments of the individual but for my own needs the smaller apertures of the diaphragm are best suited such as f.18, 22, 25, 32 or 36 necessitating relatively long exposures of from one-tenth to one second shooting for the extreme close-ups. It is the low stops or apertures that contribute to clear perspective and well defined objects in both the foreground and background. Compromises may be made to meet prevailing handicaps such as the wind or poor light but I find it best to postpone a project, even in the middle of operations, if conditions are not conducive to good results; there is plenty of good weather and flowers to be photographed under desirable conditions.

I never use filters in color work except at night when a CC13 is placed over the lens to correct the blue in photo-flood light when working with artificial light type color film. A pale yellow filter is used with panchromatic black and white film but only to darken the sky in the case of a habitat plant shot.

The artist's backgrounds or window cards are avail-able in many colors and may be purchased at paint and art stores. While indispensable for blocking out the blurred mush and giving the flowers a chance to show off, the show cards are also handy as a windbreak if a limber cactus joint is too nervous in the breeze.

A complete assortment of equipment is fine and dandy but it goes without saying that in cactus photography the important thing is being at the right place at the right time and not necessarily with a big load of gadgets.

And don't forget the water; it's dry on the desert.