Last night we had a happening at our house! The blooming of our Night Blooming Cereus! The Night Blooming Cereus is found in the wild in the Southwest Sonoran and Chichuahuan deserts. It blooms in June or July in the wild, but we have found it to be July or August up north here. Some years the plant won’t bloom, but when it does it is a spectacular sight! This year we had only this one bloom which opened up last night.

The blooms start opening after dark and reaches its peak about midnight. It became about 6-8” in diameter and had a wonderful fragrance which is light and delicate in nature – yet very strong and can be enjoyed from several feet away. By morning the show is over and the bloom is nothing more than a suspended, limp clump of spent flower. But while it is open it is a mesmerizing sight! Last night we had several neighbors stop by, ok, maybe drawn at first to what the heck I was doing with a flashlight and camera at the bottom of our stairs, but the flower became the centerpiece of the evening. I photographed it using a simple Canon PowerShot and a flashlight! I should have run back to the studio and grabbed my regular gear, but it had become such a fun time I just couldn’t pull myself away! These images were taken over about a 2 hour window, and even the light from the flashlight was enough to make it begin to close up, so I would work for a few minutes and then leave it alone.

Because you never know when they will bloom, to see one in bloom in the wild is said to be a once in a lifetime experience. In most places they are protected species in the wild. Also called Moon Cactus (genus Selenicereus), any member of a group of about 20 species of cacti in the family Cactaceae. The plants are native to tropical and subtropical America, including the West Indies. They are widely grown in suitable American climates and have escaped from cultivation. The genus is known for its large, usually fragrant, night-blooming white flowers. Our plant is of the Epiphyllum oxypetalum genus. It propagates by dividing rhizomes, tubers, corms or bulbs (including offsets), from leaf cuttings, from herbaceous stem cuttings.

But the bottom line is it provides a spectacular show for a few hours here on this planet. And for that I am very thankful.

Check our website at for more images! Click here for more Night Blooming Cereus images – and to see our Blog Only print offer! www.quietlightpublishing.com/blog/blog_nightbloom.html

Peace,
Richard Mack

Do you have shots you’d like to share, questions or comments…leave them below! I love to hear from you!

Last night we had the full moon rising over Lake Michigan, so I ventured down to the lake front – camera in hand to try and capture an image I had seen a few days before while Kathy & I were walking down there. It seemed perfect for a moonrise shot.

As I approached I realized there were clouds on the horizon which may interfere with my shooting. I setup anyway and much to my delight the moon peaked out through a layer of clouds at the perfect time. It then dipped back into a thicker layer and then back out, well into darkness about an hour past sunset. No worries – this was the shot I was really after and I think the clouds actually helped out! The final exposures were for 30 seconds – and the moon will actually move in an exposure of that length – so having the clouds to “mask” the movement was helpful, while still illuminated the clouds. The series of shots here go from the start of the evening with a more “traditional” look to the more ethereal look of the last shot with the lights from the docks coming across the landscape.

We have just started a new book project photographing all five of the Great Lakes, which hold a full 20% of the worlds fresh water. That includes every lake, stream, river and wetland – in the entire world! All found here in the five Great Lakes – it seems a huge task – but I guess no bigger than covering the Lewis & Clark Trail! Who knows whether any of these will make the cut in our new book project on the Great Lakes, but it was a rewarding evening and only time will tell if one of these shots makes the book.