like a cosmic bucket...snapseed + colorsplash

Once in a while, I'll take my iPhone with me on my long weekend run.

This morning, I drove up to Sabino Canyon, on Tucson's NE edge.

With the recent rains, the desert is green:

The typical pattern here in the summer is clear mornings,

with clouds building in the afternoon,

and then evening thunderstorms...

But today began with clouds.

Ominous saguaros...

Some 'paperflower' in bloom...

(I've been playing with my new 

photo-editing 

 'flavor-of-the-month'

in addition to snapseed:

an app called "ColorSplash")

so green!

Running into the canyon,

after about 2.5 miles,

a reflecting pool below Thimble Peak:

Nice to have so much water;

a couple of months ago, this pool had completely dried up...

Plenty of sacred datura blooms

(a.k.a. 'jimson weed' or even 'Indian whiskey')

...and morning-glory:

(another "ColorSplashed" shot)

...as I came back out of the Canyon, though, the sky had turned ominous,

curtains of rain on the horizon...

and then--WHOA!

--like some cosmic bucket pouring out over the vastness...

It's unusual to have a morning thunderstorm;

 this cell came rolling over the Rincon Mountains from the east...

And that was this morning around Tucson.

============================================

And, just one more 'colorsplashed' and 'snapseeded' shot for tonight--

Hyangweonjeon Pavilion

("Far-reaching fragrance")

in Gyeongbok-gung Palace in Seoul:

desert evening...

It's been a good-and-wet monsoon season in Tucson so far...Last night was a break in the rain, so my wife and I went for a walk near Sabino Canyon--good to see the desert slopes so green, with water gushing out of the Santa Catalina Mountains... 

A few iphone-shots from last night:

...surveying the trails into Sabino Canyon...

...road to Bear Canyon, flooded...

...late summer wildflowers popping up...

...lots of grass shooting up among the prickly pear...

...an evening ride...

 ...a lone rain shower off to the south:

Really--I did not overly tweak the color in this shot;

I did play with 'ambiance' and 'drama' in order to 

brighten the foreground,

but the otherworldly clouds are REAL:

...sunset path...

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...