One of three cacti

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It was March 2, and as I walked around the undeveloped area behind a small playground on Yaupon Dr. in my northwestern part of Austin, I came across something unusual: three species of cactus growing within an area of about a square meter. One was the ubiquitous prickly pear, which you’ve seen many times in these pages. Another appeared to be a Mammillaria. The third and smallest was the one shown here, a lace cactus, Echinocereus reichenbachii. None of the three species even had buds this early in the season, but I was intrigued by the radial pattern at the top of the lace cactus, which I emphasized by aiming the camera straight down and cropping the resulting photograph in a circle. The diameter of that circle represents a distance of about 3 cm., or a little more than an inch.

Those of you who are interested in photography as a craft can confirm that points 1, 8, 9, 15, and 21 in About My Techniques are relevant to this image.

© 2012 Steven Schwartzman