Cholla Cactus Flower

This is the spectacular flower of the cholla (choy-a) cactus.  It was an unbelievably windy day, so it was a challenge between trying to steady myself and waiting for the milliseconds in-between gusts to  try to snap off a shot.  

As with all of my other cactus flower shots, this needed no more processing than a crop.  The natural softness comes through the lens.

Softness.  Cactus.  Kind of an oxymoron.

I really need to keep up with my daily blips so that no one would miss things like this flower   or my fab shot of Pope Francis!  Please check them out.