The Ocotillo Bloom

It started with grand plans for a series of images of a single Ocotillo stem bloom moving from buds to opened flowers that would morph from one image to the next either as an animated GIF or as a video loop with morning and evening images to show differences in light on the flowers with all the images carefully superimposed to give a feeling of being there over time.  In my mind I knew what I wanted to "see" so I began the translation process to create what I held in my mind.  I chose 2 stems and began taking photographs every morning and evening.  After several days and no progression in the reddish/orange buds I thought perhaps more water would speed things up, so I watered the selected Ocotillos.  Nothing, no change, no progression towards flowering just the groups of flower buds.  Unsure of how to proceed I just continued to take the twice daily photographs knowing that at some point the flowers would open.  Finally it occurred and one of the stems finally bloomed.  Not all once but it started, of course then then winds came up and changed everything, removing a number of flowers and making any additional photography pointless.  So I ended up with just a couple of photographs that were publishable, not enough for the planned animated GIF, but enough material for a little repeating video which was posted to the Friends of Cave Creek Canyon You Tube page.  Below is the final product which came out pretty well considering the amount of work and grand plans.