Home › #Flowers › AN AWAKENED CACTUS – FLOWER OF THE DAY

AN AWAKENED CACTUS – FLOWER OF THE DAY

By on • ( 25 )

Flower of the Day

While we were away or a couple of days, the cactus decided to do what cacti do. It bloomed. Not fully.

There are a dozen more buds on both of the plants now. The second one hasn’t bloomed yet, but the buds are full and just about ready!

I took out my Macro Lens and got into my usual battle with it.

“Take that shot.”
“NO.”
“I command you to focus!”
“NO, never!”

And suddenly, almost ready to throw the damned lens out the window — I have a perfect picture waiting for the shutter click.

“CLICK! Can I please take one more?”
“NO!”

But I got some pretty ones anyhow and there are more I haven’t finished processing yet.

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Categories: #Flowers, #Photography, Macro, Optics

Tags: , , ,

25 replies

  1. fromsandyknob
    02/05/2018 • 23:50

    Yours has susch pretty flowers!!!

    Like

  2. sherriepalmer
    02/05/2018 • 22:32

    Theses are one of my favorite houseplants. They are so easy to grow and bloom. Beautiful photos.

    Like

  3. Cee Neuner
    02/05/2018 • 15:35

    Oh Marilyn, I like your cactus photos.

    Like

    • Marilyn Armstrong
      02/05/2018 • 16:45

      I took new ones this morning. I think the morning light was a little brighter, so the macro focused better. Macro lenses are great except half way through using them, I’m ready to throw it out the window. They do not do what YOU want … they do what THEY want 😀

      Like

  4. swo8
    02/05/2018 • 10:59

    They’re lovely, Marilyn. What a delight at this time of year.
    Leslie

    Liked by 1 person

  5. judyt54
    02/05/2018 • 09:29

    these are lovely. One of these days I may just invest in a macro…

    I repotted my monster cactus this last fall and I think I somehow upset the balance. It bloomed not at all at Christmas, and now it’s reluctantly putting out one.bloom.a.week. I’ve never had scarlet, only that serious pink.

    Trouble is, now the damn thing weighs close to forty pounds, dry, and I may just have to divide it, come summer.

    Like

    • Marilyn Armstrong
      02/05/2018 • 16:46

      It sound like it might need to be divided. I hate dividing anything because it takes them another year to recover. I need to repot both of mine … and they aren’t going to like that, either. Cactus are really easy … except when they really AREN’T easy. They are fussy, is what they are.

      Like

  6. Roy
    02/05/2018 • 01:14

    Beautiful reds

    Like

  7. angloswiss
    02/05/2018 • 00:44

    I had 5 flowers this year and it gave up. You got some good shots. Macro lens can be very frustrating. After pointing and shooting, you often get a macro blur

    Like

  8. lwbut
    02/05/2018 • 00:44

    Lovely shots Marilyn! 🙂

    Beautiful colour too!

    Like

  9. slmret
    02/05/2018 • 00:32

    You did get some nice shots of the cactus! I guess with macro lenses the depth of field is so narrow that you have to be exactly the right distance from the subject.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Marilyn Armstrong
      02/05/2018 • 00:40

      It’s also that macro lenses are very persnickety about focus. They have two focus lengths — natural (long) at 60mm, and macros — from almost in the flower to a few centimeters out. The lens sort of “finds” its own focus and sometimes, it absolutely doesn’t want to focus close and you have to whisper sweet nothings into its optics before it will decide to find it. It works better in very bright light, which I didn’t get today because it was raining. But I don’t get very bright light in this house, so I have to deal with what there is. Still, I like the pictures. The flowers are so interesting.

      Liked by 4 people