Portrait of a cactus in my native San Diego. To live there is to know hard light and noontime shadows, the glare of white stucco and the clay dust of the soil. I love the starkness of this scene, the way the barren nature of the desert confronts you, but somehow in the unique happenstance of this capture things feel soft—the wall is serene and matte, the soil velvety, the cactus flesh leathery and smooth.