pointing to the coming rains

Last night, at a friend's house in the foothills of the Rincon Mountains, on the eastern edge of Tucson,

the sunset lit up the cloudy sky to the east--bringing out my iphone...

[Below each snapseeded image you'll see the 'before' shot.]

 ...a saguaro 'crowned' with its fruit, pointing to the promise of the coming monsoon rains:

For the above shot, used the "ambiance" tool within the "tune image" filter,

a bit of  "drama"...For all of the pictures, I cropped them into squares,

influenced, I guess, by the format of 'instagram' and the old 'holga' cameras...

Most of the holes in saguaros are birdhouses excavated by Gila woodpeckers.
The crimson fruit are gathered and made into wine by the native Tohono O'odham people for their "singing down the rain" ceremonies...

For this one, I zoomed in on the rainbow and mid-section of the saguaro,

and then a bit of the 'selective adjust' tool to brighten the cactus itself.

The rainbow was up in the 'virga'--desert rain that evaporates before it ever reaches the ground; that's just how dry the air is before the monsoon season really gets under way...

For the final picture, I used the "straighten" tool...

The building is not a house--it's a stable;

horses livin' in style in the desert...

Today or tomorrow, the rain should finally reach the ground...