This Barrel Cactus represents the first of many shots taken on this trip. I used the tilt shift to achieve the subtle effect seen here. In this case, I was able to shoot with a wide aperture with the plane of focus tilted to get the crown in sharp focus. The ground, covered by several Poppy Flowers, was kept soft and obscure but evenly out of focus.

I think this is my favorite image from the trip. It has a unique look of the tilt focus simply impossible to achieve with any other type of lens.