Desert cactus photos in Phoenix AZ

A few weeks ago my wife and I made a rather brief trip to Phoenix to visit with some friends, while on the way to help my parent move move back to Seattle from their winter home in Borrego Springs.  We usually make a journey to Phoenix early in March to watch the Mariners at Spring Training, but this year we were almost a month later and the weather was much different than our usual experience.  Not only was it considerably warmer, man of the various species of cactus were flowering, something I nearly always miss.

I was at a bit of a disadvantage as I did not have a true macro lens with me, but I did have my trusty Canon EF 24-105L lens, which will focus in pretty tightly.  I managed to find a few times when I could get away from the house and indulge my desire to photograph some of the different cactus.  Here is a small selection of what I shot, more to follow in a later post –