#CMMC: Up close and personal with a saguaro

The theme for Cee’s Midweek Madness Challenge (CMMC) this week is Closeup or Macro. I fell in love with macro photography years ago, when I first bought a decent point and shoot with a macro setting and started taking closeups of flowers. I still take closeups of flowers, but it’s fun to get in close with other subjects too. I’ve written on here before about noticing the details of life and of seeing life through a macro lens, and the older I get, the more value I see in those practices.

I live in the Sonoran Desert, home of the saguaro cactus. They are everywhere down here–along the freeway, on the mountainsides, even in my front yard. they are huge and whimsical and wonderful–and often seen at a distance. But they are just as cool up close.

Here’s another picture of the same spot on the same cactus, but taken with my iPhone’s noir setting. Different look. Just as cool.