The Artful Engineer

During our long stay in Alabama, I did take a short trip to my former haunts in Tucson, Arizona, and was able to go on a nice hike through Catalina State Park. Catalina State Park is a wonderful place that sits below the stunning Pusch Ridge. It was a great day for photography with dramatic clouds and patches of rain in all directions, and somehow it didn’t rain on us during our walk.

I only brought one lens on my walk—a very light 40mm f/2—so I had to make do without the focal length flexibility I typically enjoy from my 24-120mm zoom. For whatever reason, the usual prime lens fan favorite of 50mm has never been a favorite of mine, and I have found it to be more comfortable to use a slightly tighter 60mm lens or a slightly wider 40mm lens. For the image above, 40mm covers a pretty broad swath of the landscape without minimizing the mountains like a wider lens would. For the image below, focusing on the central portion of the cactus emphasizes the most interesting part of this unusual example of a crested saguaro. The image also functions as an environmental portrait of sorts, showing the rocks and brush and other (non-mutated) saguaros behind it, not to mention the storm clouds.

The mesquite tree below is slowly changing into a bleached statue commemorating its long life. This is not a neat-and-tidy image, but framing tightly emphasizes the basic structure of the main limbs off the trunk. The fact that the bark remains on the upper portion and is largely absent from the base and right hand branch give some interesting contrast. All of the smaller branches (which for some convenient reason are all on the far side of the tree) going every which way partially obscure the background, so while it is clear what the background is, the emphasis stays on the tree. They also add some dynamicism to the image. I suspect that comparing this to a model’s long hair blowing around behind her is a stretch, but it is kind of that basic idea.

While I have to admit that I wish the cholla in the following image was a saguaro or an ocotillo, I still like the way it is leaning defiantly towards the angry clouds:

This last image is my favorite of the set. I love the atmosphere of it. If a tree could be a necromancer, I would expect it to look like this: marching out of a dangerous wasteland with its arms spread ominously wide. This is not a pampered eye-candy cypress overlooking the sea: it is a frightening, undead mesquite that would destroy its rival in a single beat of its black heart.

I’m so grateful for the dark clouds that day. The more typical Arizona blue skies would have ruined this image. Including the environment around and behind this tree gives strength and context to the image. The lighter dead grasses provide some lightness for the tree itself to be nearly silhouetted against.

I hope you enjoy these images as much as I do. Thanks for visiting!