Cacti: Plants and Flowers: Don't walk by them without getting a picture!

Asher Kelman · May 24, 2011

Cacti are wonderfully adapted plants with tap roots and branched stems and leaves. It's hard to distinguish the branch from the leaves. We pass by cacti and then one day they flower; like the plain-jane girl next door who grows up to wow everyone! these I found off Santa Monica Boulevard when I visited the Art in the Park Fair this Sunday. I had to share them with you!

Asher Kelman: Yellow Cactus flower

Canon 5DII 50mm 1.4

Asher Kelman: Abundant Pink-Magenta

Canon 5DII 50mm 1.4

Asher Kelman: Solitary

Canon 5DII 50mm 1.4

Enjoy, comment and add your own favorites!

Asher

Rachel Foster · May 25, 2011

I love the crispness of the first one! These deserve a closer look.

Asher Kelman · May 25, 2011

Rachel Foster said:
I love the crispness of the first one! These deserve a closer look.

Rachel,

Thanks for dropping by, I appreciate that. I'm finding that cacti are especially challenging for composition. my son remarked that they're good pictures, but not artistic! As I said, it's not easy. Comments are welcome! We arrange ordinary flowers and have a great sense of what makes an arrangement work. Cacti are so very different! I'm looking forward to seeing how others approach the subject.

Asher

Rachel Foster · May 25, 2011

The only thing that occurred to me was a more shallow dof. They're beautiful plants, so "the shot" will likely be found in lighting and dof.

Winston Mitchell · May 25, 2011

Hi Asher,

Very nice indeed. I don't think the middle one is in the same class as the other two. For me, the third one is by far the best.

I have resisted the urge to fiddle with any of them as it would only show different results with doubtful improvement.

Asher Kelman · May 25, 2011

Winston Mitchell said:
Hi Asher,

Very nice indeed. I don't think the middle one is in the same class as the other two. For me, the third one is by far the best.

I have resisted the urge to fiddle with any of them as it would only show different results with doubtful improvement.

Thanks Winston for the feedback and encouragement. I will do more work on this!

Asher

Asher Kelman · May 25, 2011

When my brain is better attuned to these plants, I'll get my film camera to them!

Asher

Maris Rusis · May 25, 2011

Sharp Agave

Gelatin-silver photograph on Fomabrom Variant III VC FB, image dimensions 21.5cm X 16.2cm, from a Tmax 100 negative exposed in a Mamiya RB 67 camera with a 360mm f6.3 lens.

Asher's cacti are lovely when they flower but still they are fierce against challenge. My sharp Agave flowers but once, maybe in a few decades, and then dies. It has a lot of future beauty to protect.

Asher Kelman · May 25, 2011

Maris Rusis said:
Sharp Agave

Gelatin-silver photograph on Fomabrom Variant III VC FB, image dimensions 21.5cm X 16.2cm, from a Tmax 100 negative exposed in a Mamiya RB 67 camera with a 360mm f6.3 lens.

Maris,

So pleased to see your fine photograph. This is an eyeopener, (not meant to be hurtful with the pointed ends) but rather that you have used the pattern of the leaves to great advantage.

Maris Rusis said:

Asher's cacti are lovely when they flower but still they are fierce against challenge.

Click to expand...

Appreciate you kind comment!

Maris Rusis said:

My sharp Agave flowers but once, maybe in a few decades, and then dies. It has a lot of future beauty to protect.

Click to expand...

So the plant dies after it flowers? If that's so it must be pretty certain of the fecundity of its offspring!

Asher

Doug Kerr · May 26, 2011

TOS

As Asher requested:

We have little cactus here in North Texas. The winter temperatures get too low for most of the popular species to flourish.

I've often enjoyed rather unexpected stand of Prickly Pear (Opuntia gilvrescens, I think). It is nestled behind the crash barriers of the divider of a nearby low highway bridge over a creek. This is considerably east of its usual range.

Douglas A. Kerr: Opuntia gilvescens on US 180

Here we see the flowers about to bloom. They top little cups equipped with the customary spines:

Douglas A. Kerr: Opuntia gilvescens - incipient blooms

We see a finished one in Asher's lovely work, Solitary, in this thread.

At the other end of the median behind the barrier, almost to the bank of the creek valley, there is this precious stand of O. gilvrescens, anchoring a leather bag of some sort:

Douglas A. Kerr: Opuntia gilvescens - bag hitchin' post

Well, this completes my work here. Let me take this opportunity to thank all my colleagues here for your patience with my ramblings.

Doug

Asher Kelman · May 26, 2011

Doug Kerr said:
I've often enjoyed rather unexpected stand of Prickly Pear (Opuntia gilvrescens, I think). It is nestled behind the crash barriers of the divider of a nearby low highway bridge over a creek. This is considerably east of its usual range.

Douglas A. Kerr: Opuntia gilvescens - incipient blooms

The special thing about cactus is that it lasts a long time, its flesh is succulent, has deep roots, weathers hard time, does flower if one has patience and yet is so very prickly on the outside. I like this picture for reminding me of all that.

Thanks Doug!

Asher

Jerome Marot · May 28, 2011

Asher Kelman · May 28, 2011

Jerome Marot said:

Jerome,

At last! an arrangement of cacti that are planted in a delightful manner and then photographed accordingly. Cacti are complicated and don't lend themselves so ready to romantic forms like irises or roses. But it may be that we need to observe them more and plant them in a way that's sympathetic to their nature. That's what I see here.

Asher

Jerome Marot · May 28, 2011

Actually, we don't really "arrange" them. We just put a few of the little fellows in a rocky, sunny place and they do that themselves... It is not obvious from the photograph, but these plants are about nail or at max coin size.

Mark Hampton · May 28, 2011

Strange plants to a scot - seen in the movies or a photographic icon - these images were made in Spain... I need to work with the last as I think it carries more metaphoric weight with it than just a abstracted study....

It.ere.tion 1- M Hampton

It.ere.tion 2- M Hampton

self.heal.self - M Hampton

looking at the images on the thread there are alot of these strange plants about ! Its good to see.

I have no idea what classification has been given to the above things other than I think they are Cacti - they may not be... when I asked them they didnt talk back !!

cheers

Jerome Marot · May 29, 2011

I would say that this plant is a variety of euphorbia, maybe Euphorbia Canariensis. However, accurate identification is generally difficult for euphorbia, which is one of the most complex genera in the plant kingdom and impossible with the little information we have from your pictures.

The last picture is especially nice.

Asher Kelman · May 29, 2011

Jerome Marot said:
Actually, we don't really "arrange" them. We just put a few of the little fellows in a rocky, sunny place and they do that themselves... It is not obvious from the photograph, but these plants are about nail or at max coin size.

Jerome,

This works well in color and composition. I'd never guess the miniature size. Mice become small when food is scarce and they have a better chance of survival. Something like that may be at work with small plants.

Asher

Cacti: Plants and Flowers: Don't walk by them without getting a picture!

Asher Kelman

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Rachel Foster

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Asher Kelman

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Maris Rusis

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