Let me tell you about one of the stark differences between the UK and the Sonoran Desert. Apart from the obvious (the weather).
This has been our third spring in the valley, and each and every time spring rolled around I have been astounded by the vast array of colour. As an outsider I imagined the desert to be dusty brown and lifeless, but oh how wrong I was, and never more so than during the spring. The desert goes literally bananas with wildflowers, all the palo verde turn 1000% yellow, the cacti create flowers from seemingly nowhere and the air becomes thick with the smell of pot pourri. But the thing that gets me, going back to my original point, is the colour of all the blossom. In the UK the colours of spring are soft, pastel, gentle and muted; in the desert the colours are bright and vivid, striking, in-your-face-look-at-me-now colours. They are bright yellows and neon pinks; not ivory, baby pink and soft lilacs.
In the last couple of months alone I have had two occasions where I’ve been focused on photographing one thing and suddenly side-tracked by {purple} flowers. I can only think it is because I see them so rarely here in the desert, when I was so used to them in England. (Let’s not mention the purple flowers in the front garden, ok? I clearly see past them each and every day).
One afternoon at the Desert Botanical Gardens I was looking for Red for a different blog post, when lots of bees and some beautiful colour took my attention elsewhere:
On our recent trip to Big Bend National Park, TX we were headed to a trail head and I was busy with my head in the guide book navigating and whatnot, when these flowers appear just as tiny flash out the corner of my eye. Hence followed the universal photographer’s cry “PULL OVER!”
Ok, so they might technically be “Blue” Bonnets and my processing may have accentuated the “blue”, but any blue flower is really purple in my eyes!
I’m included this image here too, also from Big Bend National Park, even though I’ve included it in a previous blog post, because I love this little dude:
This blog is part of the Artists Inspired Blog Circle series. Click here to continue the circle and see how talented photographer, Channon Williamson, interpreted this month’s theme. Be sure to follow the links all the way round to complete the full circle.
The Artists Inspired Blog Circle is made up of an exceptionally talented group of photographers from all walks of life, from all over the world. They are wives, mothers, friends, daughters and visual storytellers who draw from their own experiences to create art that is inspiring, unique, beautiful and thought-provoking.
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