The cactus blooms in and around St. George area are beautiful and reliable every year. The blooming period lasts for a few weeks but the peak bloom is only for a few days on each cactus depending on the type of cactus and its location. These images are from May 7.

Giant saguaros are native to southern Arizona, not St. George. These images are of the Argentine White Saguaro, a much faster growing variety that also can handle the relative cold here vs Tucson where native saguaros live.

The streets from St. George through Santa Clara UT to Ivins UT on to Kayenta UT are lined with cactuses. The Kayenta art village and nearby streets in Ivins put on a beautiful display this year. This is the first of three posts on the bloom this year.

Feature Image Details

• EOS R5 Mirrorless Camera
• Canon RF 100 MM Macro Lens
• F16 for 1/350th second ISO 1000

This image and the ones that follow are harder than they look. I am pretty close to these blooms and depth of field is shallow. That’s a blend of five images focused on different spots.

When this close to an image there is a parallax error and ghosting. The out of focus highlights appear larger than they are. There was also a slight breeze. Finally, these kinds of images photograph terrible in full sun, and I had full sun.

This was a two person setup. I had my wife Liz hold a large white umbrella over the cactus while I took images. I used Photoshop to blend the images but I had to touch up some of the edges on a couple blooms manually to remove ghost effects.

Nearby Locations 

• Desert Tortoises in Snow Canyon State Park
• Petrified Dunes After Rain Storm – Snow Canyon State Park
• On the Verge of a Slide – Snow Canyon State Park
• That Cloud – Snow Canyon State Park

Equipment

Those interested in my equipment and recommendations can find it here: Mish’s Equipment List.

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Mike “Mish” Shedlock