Tagged: cactus

 

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One of my favorite things to do in the winter in Chicago is to visit one of the conservatories to see the plants and blossoms. The splash of color does wonders to invigorate my spirit.
But then I tend to create monochrome images out of my trips because I love the textures.

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I love seeing other people’s photos, and recently I saw a photo of a single cactus blossom from a photographer that was perfect and beautiful. I don’t like my image quite as much as theirs, but this cute blossom was absolutely perfect for the photograph.

 

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Growing up, my Mom always had Christmas cactus, and if I remember the original plant may have come from her brother had quite the green thumb. I definitely remember playing football in the house with my brother and knocking the plant over and the blossoms falling off and KNOWING that we were in so much trouble.

But when I told my parents that Sarah and I were moving in together, my Mom gave Sarah a cutting of the Christmas cactus as a “home warming gift”.

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I guess I’ve never really paid attention to the spines on various cactus plants, but I have definitely never noticed a cactus’s spines that are quite as curvy as this cactus’s are! I love the almost “barrier” like feel to the repeating leaves, if that’s what you would call them, and the repeating pattern makes me wonder if there’s a mathematical system behind their arrangement.

 

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As part of my black & white month, I wanted to feature some photos of cactus.   I’ve visited several botanic gardens and conservatories, but hadn’t ever spent the time and focus needed to properly capture cactus.   So, on a cold Sunday in January, I drove down to Lincoln Park, and upon arriving, realized that I’d left my Nikon at home.   After driving home and back, I walked into the Lincoln Park Conservatory, only to discover that they don’t have a cactus room – some days just don’t work out how you plan.

So, instead of cactus, I took photos of plants that I thought would work great in black & white…and someday, I’ll actually take a trip to photograph cactus.

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