Today's walk report: 063013

Earlier PM walk since temps weren't so high but the humidity was pretty awful. Geez, sorry for writing about the weather so much lately but it really is a factor in how everything goes down this time of year and once again today it was pretty significant. This will sum it up quickly though... At 1:20 PM it was 105º with a relative humidity of 19%. By 4:00 PM it was 87º but the humidity was up to 40% by 6:10 it was still 85º but the humidity was up to 48% and I had already walked close to 1 km. Yuck, is the word.

On to the garden...

Little bunny in the sunny.

If you read this blog yesterday I mentioned that I was expecting these cactus to bloom soon. In fact I was certain that was going to be the focus of my picture taking on my walk today. Not only were they not open but I noticed a few had shriveled into withered black deadness and fallen to the ground. At that point I was looking for something else to do...

Agave attenuata flower (I think)

I took a couple pictures of dead flowers yesterday and thought maybe I'd try that as a theme, then Colin came running up.

I guess I met Colin on one of my walks first time a little over a year ago. He runs with his dogs and then runs for real. If you've ever run with a dog then you know what I'm referring to.

Colin never stops moving but we often chat. Well Colin points out the now infamous non-blooming cactus and tells me that it would make a fantastic time-lapse and that the flowers open AT NIGHT. He has the same cactus in his backyard. And here I just recently watched Disney's, Wings of Life which had a whole segment on bats pollinating certain cactus at night and it didn't even cross my mind. So, change of plans. I decide to walk home, do dinner, feed my spoiled cat, etc. and drive back early evening with tripod, a couple lenses and some make-shift lighting. I'd really like to find an easy small portable lighting solution for night photos but I haven't yet. I was using single or multiple LEDs flashlights to get focus and either shoot with those or on board flash or both. It's pretty sorry lighting but I try.

This was 5 images focus stacked, hand held using just a flashlight.

Same deal with 4 stacked images...

I can't say I'm happy with anything I got. I have to think about this some more. I had put the whole night thing on hold basically because I wasn't happy with the first experiments. It was nice to see these cactus open up though, that experience was fine. Thanks to Colin.