The beautiful color of this moth gets lost in the tree it is perched on. A perfect candidate for my selective color project. Photographed at the butterfly garden in the Tucson Botanical Gardens.
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Selective Color Moth
I am thinking of entering the Smithsonian Photo Contest even though I have zero chance of winning. I say that not to denigrate my ability as a photographer, but each category already has over 50,000 entries. Sure a lot of them are crap but some, well follow the link above and see for yourself. Also you can only submit work from 1/1/2016 until the present and all works with people must have a model release.
If you are familiar with any of my work (e.g. Moment and Souls) you probably realize I don’t have a lot of model releases.
Fortunately I do have some images that may qualify in other categories and will be publishing some here to see if you feel they quality. Please comment and let me know your thoughts. This is an African Butterly photographed at The Tucson Botanical Garden.
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African Butterfly
The saguaro cactus species is native to the Sonoran Desert in Arizona, and the Mexican State of Sonora. It can grow to be over 40 feet and can live up to 150 years. They grow their first “arm” at 50 years of age
In 1994, Saguaro National Park, near Tucson, Arizona you can see thousands of these. Every now an then you will see a dead one. Wind, insects, lightning and old age are the natural enemy of the desert monolith. This one looks like it was struck by lightning and suffered a tragic death.
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gallery.
Death in the Desert
The Tucson Botanical Garden is known for their Butterfly Garden but has much more to offer. Although it is not large, its has an excellent collection of cactus and succulents and many interesting presentations.
I found this cactus pyramid to be an excellent way to present these desert beauties.
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Cactus Pyramid
I had read about Brisbee Arizona. It is an old mining town in the mountains to the southeast of Tucson. It is now an artist colony and old west ghost town of sorts and I thought it would make an interesting day trip while we were in Tucson. I didn’t realize that to get there we had to go through Tombstone and the bonus of the day trip was seeing the Boot Hill Graveyard.
The graveyard was fascinating. So many people were shot or murdered in a period of just five years. Here were the graves of the infamous Clanton Gang. At one time they rode with Frank and Jesse James. The cemetery was small but well maintained and free to the public. Just down the road is the OK Coral and the famous Tombstone Courthouse.
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Boot Hill Graveyard
Boot Hill Graveyard
The Tucson Botanical Garden has an excellent butterfly room featuring butterflies and moths from all around the world. In addition to the live Butterfly Garden they also have exhibits of chrysalis and preserved insects. The garden is not large but the Butterfly Exhibit is worth the price alone.
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Butterflies in the Desert
Butterflies in the Desert
Butterflies in the Desert
The Sonoran Desert is a North American desert which covers large parts of the Southwestern United States in Arizona and California and of Northwestern Mexico including parts of Baja California. Inside the desert there are a number of National Parks including Saguaro National Park which is near Tucson Arizona. Of course one of the reasons for the parks name is dozens of small forests of Saguaro cactus.
There are miles of trails and hikes available for all levels and the winter weather in the low 70’s with crystal clear skies was perfect.
Saguaro National Park
We walked through the Boot Hill Graveyard in Tombstone Arizona and saw the graves of the Clantons and many others that were “shot dead” or “kilt by an injun”. A little ways down the road was the OK Corral and an old west town that looked more like a movie set than reality.
In the graveyard I saw men in orange jumpsuits tending to the graves. I thought it strange that these men were doing this and said hello to them and told them they were doing a good job. But they just turned away and wouldn’t say anything to me. Then I saw The Walking Boss who shot a glare in my direction, : how dare I talk to these men. I moved on remembering where I was and felt a little sad.
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The Walking Boss
Well we are back from our western adventure and have lots of great scenic shots from the southwest to share. Also, there are some unexpected people shots like this one. OK, he wasn’t the Sheriff but he did work at Boot Hill and was filled with information about the historic graveyards. He also had an interesting personal story so if you go there make sure you say hello. We stumbled on Tombstone on our way to Brisby and both places are worth a day trip from Tucson or overnight at a great B and B is Brisby.
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Sheriff of Boot Hill
Imagery Photography 