I made this image just as the setting sun grazed the bright violet blooms of a desert cactus. The sun also defines the sharp spines exploding around them. The luminous blossoms and their surrounding spines stand in sharp contrast to the already shaded masses of yellow wildflowers that fill a softly focused background. By slightly darkening the edges of the image in post-processing, I further stress the incongruity of this contrast in colors, telling an emphatic story of nature itself at work.