Gates Pass Panos Near Tucson Arizona

For months, I've been meaning to post these wonderful cactus shots from Gate Pass, west of Tucson AZ. Life conspired against me and here we are three months later going through my photo processing backlog.

This first shot was a serendipitous fluke (is that redundant). I had finished taking my photos from a perch high-up on the hillside. I had worked my way back down the rocky incline thinking that I had captured my best shots of the day. As I approached the parking lot, I saw a dozen photographers of all skills, shapes, ages, and sizes. I scoffed at their parking-lot-served photography. "Use your feet to get the best view from up above..." I thought to myself. "Lemmings." But as I sauntered past the overlook shelter I took a casual glance over my shoulder. The sun was setting directly between the two hills, perfectly silhouetting the Saguaro cacti. "Oh Snap!!" I thought--really that is what I thought. So I joined the paparazzi and shot another 150 images to make dozens of panoramic images with the sun inching down the horizon. Clicking away, I was getting really strange looks from all others who were content to shoot single-frame images. Lemmings! They should shoot panoramic.

This second shot is from the hillside above. It is composed of three rows of fifteen images. It prints 32"x80" at 300 DPI. I hesitate to even show it online because its virtue lies in the fine details. In print, the viewer can count each and every little cactus and rock. One person suggested that I send it away to have a huge puzzle made--a puzzle for masochists maybe.