The largest of the wildflowers that bloom here in the Wind River Canyon is the Fragile Prickly Pear Cactus (Opuntia fragilis).  This cactus flower is yellow, with a hint of green, and they are just over two inches in diameter.  They usually bloom around Wyoming in the month of June.  This cactus is widespread across the Wild West, and is one of the most striking blooms of summer.  They're fun and easy to photograph, and I ought to know, I've probably shot a thousand of these beautiful wildflowers with every conceivable camera.

     Something you don't know about these Prickly Pear Cactus is they survive farther north than any other cactus.  They bloom within 8 degrees of the Arctic Circle in Alberta!  And they're not called "Fragile" (fragilis) because of their flowers, like I suspected.  The small, large-needled plates that make up this cactus break-off easily at the stem-segments, and attach themselves to animals, and unsuspecting hikers; actual seeds are few.  

     The flowers of the low-growing Prickly Pear Cactus attracts bees and bugs of all kinds, yet have no obvious odor to my nose. It's rare to find one of these yellow cactus flowers blooming without somebody crawling on it.  That's really the reason these cactus flowers are so much fun to photograph in the field; there are always passengers on board.  Under the right soil and lighting conditions these flowers can photograph a little green at times. Fragile Prickly Pear Cactus - Wind River CanyonFragile Prickly Pear Cactus Flower photographed in Wind River Canyon, Wyoming.      This particular Fragile Prickly Pear Cactus flower photograph was chosen because it's a study in contrasts.  The hard unyielding dry stone, and the delicate sun-washed petals, with the razor-sharp needles looking fierce; and the Beatles.  The young, green cactus segments are supposedly edible, and no I have never eaten one, or had a need to, either.  Maybe if I was hungry enough and had enough ketchup............

     Wyoming wildflowers are always a fine challenge to photograph, because the best ones bloom for a very short time.  I don't own, and can't afford, a dedicated macro lens, but using a quality 70-200mm f/4 lens hasn't slowed this nature photographer up any.  The RAW file was worked in the Canon supplied software, with white-balance, saturation and sharpness applied to the picture, then saved as an uncompressed Tiff file.  That file was touched up again with more access to detail in Lightroom, and the addition of metadata (words and descriptions hidden in the digital file).  

     This cactus flower and other blooming delights are great reasons for all of us to get out of the cabin and get some exercise.  Some fresh-air and a few of Mother Nature's colors will inspire your soul to breathe free again.  Go on........go for a hike!

Photography, digital darkroom and local color by Michael John Balog - Hogbats Photography - Wind River Canyon - Wyoming.

HogbatsPhotography.com        Until next week----"Keep your camera ready!"