Saguaro Forest, Tucson, AZ

“Before Sunrise, Saguaro National Park, Tucson, AZ“

I took this photograph shortly before sunrise in the Mountain district of Saguaro National Park on the western side of Tucson, AZ. I liked the shape of the foreground Saguaro, and the fact that the the foreground saguaro looked older because of the numerous cactus wren holes. Initially, I was looking for the perfectly clean Saguaro cactus, been then I realized that the wren holes were like wrinkles on a distinguished older gentleman portrait in that they add depth to the subject. I also liked the distant hill/cliff full of saguaros, which gives the feel of a forest. Saguaro National Park is exactly that–an immense and impressive forest of Saguaro.

Overall, our long weekend in Arizona served primarily as a scouting trip for future adventures. At every location, I told my wife Liz that I wished we had more time to explore and look for compositions and study how the light works. Most of my pictures just missed the mark somehow because we did not have time to scout and previsulize images. It is a truly difficult area to photograph due to the conditions like wind and light. But it is a remarkable area that we will return to much more often. I’ll share a few more of the near misses here shortly.