Leighton Photography & Imaging

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  • A female eastern collared lizard hunts in the middle of a Texas springtime day in the Guadalupe Mountains for insects, spiders and scorpions on the side of an arroyo.
    Eastern Collared Lizard
  • Also known as the Mexican grackle, the great-tailed grackle is a member of the new world blackbird family (Icteridae) and is very common from the American Great Plains, the American Southwest and all of Mexico south to also include all of Central America. This glossy blue/black male was first noticed making an awful commotion with a number of other males and females in a tree in rural Van Horn, Texas.
    Great-tailed Grackle
  • This wonderfully attractive one-inch, desert-loving daisy is found throughout much of the American Southwest where it blooms year-round as long as it doesn't come in contact with frost. Best seen in the morning hours, this local member of the aster family begins to droop in the midday heat. Want to know something amazing about this particular flower? It smells just like chocolate! These were photographed literally at the edge of town in Van Horn, West Texas - where civilization meets the harsh and brutal Chihuahuan Desert.
    Chocolate Daisy
  • One of the most striking and beautiful of all the "barrel" cacti of the American Southwestern deserts, the claret cup cactus (also known regionally by many names such as the kingcup, queencup, hedgehog cactus, pitaya roja, etc.) has large, showy and brilliantly red flowers that attract and are pollinated by hummingbirds. Unlike most cacti, the flowers of the claret cup stay open at night. Some native American tribes who shared the same habitat would collect these cacti, burn off the sharp spines, and mash them into a pulp with some locally procured sweetener (honey?) and bake them into mini sweet cakes. This one was found and photographed on a beautiful spring day in the Guadalupe Mountains National Park in Northwestern Texas.
    Claret Cup Cactus
  • One of the most striking and beautiful of all the "barrel" cacti of the American Southwestern deserts, the claret cup cactus (also known regionally by many names such as the kingcup, queencup, hedgehog cactus, pitaya roja, etc.) has large, showy and brilliantly red flowers that attract and are pollinated by hummingbirds. Unlike most cacti, the flowers of the claret cup stay open at night. Some native American tribes who shared the same habitat would collect these cacti, burn off the sharp spines, and mash them into a pulp with some locally procured sweetener (honey?) and bake them into mini sweet cakes. This one was found and photographed on a beautiful spring day in the Guadalupe Mountains National Park in Northwestern Texas.
    Claret Cup Cactus
  • Quite a lucky find! While flipping over rocks searching for scorpions in northwestern Texas I chanced upon a (possibly brand new) desert subterranean termite colony. Normally found deep underground, under the rock I found the big queen termite, the king termite similar-looking but much smaller, and a number of worker termites. Hazarding a somewhat educated guess I'm going to say that these belong to the native Reticulitermes genus - a beneficial species that takes the role of fungus and algae in breaking down plant and wood material in the most arid of deserts where fungi and algae can't survive.
    Desert Subterranean Termites
  • The lesser striped scorpion (Hoffmannius coahuilae) is a small and somewhat high-strung burrowing scorpion found in the American Southwest. Although this one stung the stick I was using to position it for this photo about a dozen times, the venom is temporarily painful but certainly not dangerous.
    Lesser Stripetail Scorpion
  • Also known as the Mexican grackle, the great-tailed grackle is a member of the new world blackbird family (Icteridae) and is very common from the American Great Plains, the American Southwest and all of Mexico south to also include all of Central America. This glossy blue/black male was first noticed making an awful commotion with a number of other males and females in a tree in rural Van Horn, Texas.
    Great-tailed Grackle
  • Also known as the Mexican grackle, the great-tailed grackle is a member of the new world blackbird family (Icteridae) and is very common from the American Great Plains, the American Southwest and all of Mexico south to also include all of Central America. This brown/black female was first noticed making an awful commotion with a number of other males and females in a tree in rural Van Horn, Texas.
    Great-tailed Grackle
  • Also known as the Mexican grackle, the great-tailed grackle is a member of the new world blackbird family (Icteridae) and is very common from the American Great Plains, the American Southwest and all of Mexico south to also include all of Central America. This brown/black female was first noticed making an awful commotion with a number of other males and females in a tree in rural Van Horn, Texas.
    Great-tailed Grackle
  • This wonderfully attractive one-inch, desert-loving daisy is found throughout much of the American Southwest where it blooms year-round as long as it doesn't come in contact with frost. Best seen in the morning hours, this local member of the aster family begins to droop in the midday heat. Want to know something amazing about this particular flower? It smells just like chocolate! These were photographed literally at the edge of town in Van Horn, West Texas - where civilization meets the harsh and brutal Chihuahuan Desert.
    Chocolate Daisy
  • This wonderfully attractive one-inch, desert-loving daisy is found throughout much of the American Southwest where it blooms year-round as long as it doesn't come in contact with frost. Best seen in the morning hours, this local member of the aster family begins to droop in the midday heat. Want to know something amazing about this particular flower? It smells just like chocolate! These were photographed literally at the edge of town in Van Horn, West Texas - where civilization meets the harsh and brutal Chihuahuan Desert.
    Chocolate Daisy
  • This wonderfully attractive one-inch, desert-loving daisy is found throughout much of the American Southwest where it blooms year-round as long as it doesn't come in contact with frost. Best seen in the morning hours, this local member of the aster family begins to droop in the midday heat. Want to know something amazing about this particular flower? It smells just like chocolate! These were photographed literally at the edge of town in Van Horn, West Texas - where civilization meets the harsh and brutal Chihuahuan Desert.
    Chocolate Daisy
  • One of the most striking and beautiful of all the "barrel" cacti of the American Southwestern deserts, the claret cup cactus (also known regionally by many names such as the kingcup, queencup, hedgehog cactus, pitaya roja, etc.) has large, showy and brilliantly red flowers that attract and are pollinated by hummingbirds. Unlike most cacti, the flowers of the claret cup stay open at night. Some native American tribes who shared the same habitat would collect these cacti, burn off the sharp spines, and mash them into a pulp with some locally procured sweetener (honey?) and bake them into mini sweet cakes. This one was found and photographed on a beautiful spring day in the Guadalupe Mountains National Park in Northwestern Texas.
    Claret Cup Cactus
  • One of the most striking and beautiful of all the "barrel" cacti of the American Southwestern deserts, the claret cup cactus (also known regionally by many names such as the kingcup, queencup, hedgehog cactus, pitaya roja, etc.) has large, showy and brilliantly red flowers that attract and are pollinated by hummingbirds. Unlike most cacti, the flowers of the claret cup stay open at night. Some native American tribes who shared the same habitat would collect these cacti, burn off the sharp spines, and mash them into a pulp with some locally procured sweetener (honey?) and bake them into mini sweet cakes. This one was found and photographed on a beautiful spring day in the Guadalupe Mountains National Park in Northwestern Texas.
    Claret Cup Cactus
  • One of the most striking and beautiful of all the "barrel" cacti of the American Southwestern deserts, the claret cup cactus (also known regionally by many names such as the kingcup, queencup, hedgehog cactus, pitaya roja, etc.) has large, showy and brilliantly red flowers that attract and are pollinated by hummingbirds. Unlike most cacti, the flowers of the claret cup stay open at night. Some native American tribes who shared the same habitat would collect these cacti, burn off the sharp spines, and mash them into a pulp with some locally procured sweetener (honey?) and bake them into mini sweet cakes. This one was found and photographed on a beautiful spring day in the Guadalupe Mountains National Park in Northwestern Texas.
    Claret Cup Cactus
  • Easily North America's most common scorpion, the striped bark scorpion (Centruroides vittatus) is a medium-sized species found across most of the southern states and many of the states in Mexico. Perhaps one of the reasons for its geographical success is the fact that it can thrive in an amazing variety of habitats. It is found in deserts, grasslands, coniferous forests, deciduous forests and is found living under tree bark, rocks and any other suitable environment it can find. Unfortunately this is where it often is found among human habitation. Painful yet mostly harmless, this scorpion is not considered dangerous, unless you are a cricket, beetle or some other such small prey. This one was photographed in the Chihuahuan Desert's Guadalupe Mountains in NW Texas near the New Mexico border.
    Striped Bark Scorpion
  • This Chihuahua Desert native agave is about to go into flower! Not a large agave, the slimfoot century plant ranges in size from one to three feet in width, but it's flowering stalk can reach an impressive 15 feet by the time the flowers are ready to be pollinated!!
    Slimfoot Century Plant
  • I literally stepped on this interesting exposed fossil bone by accident as I was hiking along the side of an arroyo just outside of McKittrick Canyon in the Guadalupe Mountains National Park. The geology of the area dates back to the Permian Era which lasted from 299 million to 251 million years ago, and these rocks are all part of an ancient reef system near the edge of what we now call the Delaware Sea. This entire region is loaded with fossils, and is the site of much archaeological activity.
    Unidentified Fossil
  • This incredibly beautiful (and red!) mound or hedgehog cactus is a rather common sight in the Guadalupe Mountains. In several parts of the range I saw dozens if not dozens of dozens all in bloom. That vivid bright red color made them easy to spot from a distance!
    Claret Cup Cactus
  • Top view of the lesser striped scorpion (Hoffmannius coahuilae). I found this and about seven or eight others under rocks in the Guadalupe Mountains in Northwestern Texas.
    Lesser Stripetail Scorpion
  • Also known as the Mexican grackle, the great-tailed grackle is a member of the new world blackbird family (Icteridae) and is very common from the American Great Plains, the American Southwest and all of Mexico south to also include all of Central America. This glossy blue/black male was first noticed making an awful commotion with a number of other males and females in a tree in rural Van Horn, Texas.
    Great-tailed Grackle
  • This wonderfully attractive one-inch, desert-loving daisy is found throughout much of the American Southwest where it blooms year-round as long as it doesn't come in contact with frost. Best seen in the morning hours, this local member of the aster family begins to droop in the midday heat. Want to know something amazing about this particular flower? It smells just like chocolate! These were photographed literally at the edge of town in Van Horn, West Texas - where civilization meets the harsh and brutal Chihuahuan Desert.
    Chocolate Daisy
  • One of the most striking and beautiful of all the "barrel" cacti of the American Southwestern deserts, the claret cup cactus (also known regionally by many names such as the kingcup, queencup, hedgehog cactus, pitaya roja, etc.) has large, showy and brilliantly red flowers that attract and are pollinated by hummingbirds. Unlike most cacti, the flowers of the claret cup stay open at night. Some native American tribes who shared the same habitat would collect these cacti, burn off the sharp spines, and mash them into a pulp with some locally procured sweetener (honey?) and bake them into mini sweet cakes. This one was found and photographed on a beautiful spring day in the Guadalupe Mountains National Park in Northwestern Texas.
    Claret Cup Cactus
  • One of the most striking and beautiful of all the "barrel" cacti of the American Southwestern deserts, the claret cup cactus (also known regionally by many names such as the kingcup, queencup, hedgehog cactus, pitaya roja, etc.) has large, showy and brilliantly red flowers that attract and are pollinated by hummingbirds. Unlike most cacti, the flowers of the claret cup stay open at night. Some native American tribes who shared the same habitat would collect these cacti, burn off the sharp spines, and mash them into a pulp with some locally procured sweetener (honey?) and bake them into mini sweet cakes. This one was found and photographed on a beautiful spring day in the Guadalupe Mountains National Park in Northwestern Texas.
    Claret Cup Cactus
  • One of the most striking and beautiful of all the "barrel" cacti of the American Southwestern deserts, the claret cup cactus (also known regionally by many names such as the kingcup, queencup, hedgehog cactus, pitaya roja, etc.) has large, showy and brilliantly red flowers that attract and are pollinated by hummingbirds. Unlike most cacti, the flowers of the claret cup stay open at night. Some native American tribes who shared the same habitat would collect these cacti, burn off the sharp spines, and mash them into a pulp with some locally procured sweetener (honey?) and bake them into mini sweet cakes. This one was found and photographed on a beautiful spring day in the Guadalupe Mountains National Park in Northwestern Texas.
    Claret Cup Cactus
  • One of the most striking and beautiful of all the "barrel" cacti of the American Southwestern deserts, the claret cup cactus (also known regionally by many names such as the kingcup, queencup, hedgehog cactus, pitaya roja, etc.) has large, showy and brilliantly red flowers that attract and are pollinated by hummingbirds. Unlike most cacti, the flowers of the claret cup stay open at night. Some native American tribes who shared the same habitat would collect these cacti, burn off the sharp spines, and mash them into a pulp with some locally procured sweetener (honey?) and bake them into mini sweet cakes. This one was found and photographed on a beautiful spring day in the Guadalupe Mountains National Park in Northwestern Texas.
    Claret Cup Cactus
  • One of the most striking and beautiful of all the "barrel" cacti of the American Southwestern deserts, the claret cup cactus (also known regionally by many names such as the kingcup, queencup, hedgehog cactus, pitaya roja, etc.) has large, showy and brilliantly red flowers that attract and are pollinated by hummingbirds. Unlike most cacti, the flowers of the claret cup stay open at night. Some native American tribes who shared the same habitat would collect these cacti, burn off the sharp spines, and mash them into a pulp with some locally procured sweetener (honey?) and bake them into mini sweet cakes. This one was found and photographed on a beautiful spring day in the Guadalupe Mountains National Park in Northwestern Texas.
    Claret Cup Cactus
  • A view of the lesser striped scorpion (Hoffmannius coahuilae) showing how well it blends in with its environment. Normally a burrowing species, this one was found under a rock and gently coaxing onto the top of this rock for this photograph before being gently placed safely back under its original rock.
    Lesser Stripetail Scorpion
  • This beautiful medium-sized agave is found in the Chihuahuan desert of New Mexico, Texas and Northern Mexico and has wide green-grey leaves with uneven sharp serrations. Found in variable habitats such as desert scrub to pinyon woodlands, this group was found in the Guadalupe Mountains in NW Texas near the New Mexico border.
    Slimfoot Century Plant
  • Close-up of a beautiful curious eastern collared lizard in Northwestern Texas as she scrambles across the Guadalupe Mountains in search insects, spiders and scorpions in the Chihuahuan Desert.
    Eastern Collared Lizard
  • El Capitan in West Texas' Guadalupe Mountains (100 miles east of El Paso) is the world's premier example of an exposed fossil reef from the Permian Era, dated at about 260 million years old - much older than the golden age of dinosaurs. This whole part of Texas back in this time was once covered in a shallow sea that geologists call the Delaware Sea, in a time when all of Earth's continents were still joined into one supercontinent that we call Pangaea. The entire top of El Capitan is made of limestone formed from the fossilized remains of aquatic plant and animal remains such as corals, algae, shellfish and plankton, and now stands at just above 8000 feet above sea level. The base is formed by layer upon layer of sand laid down over millions of years, in the manner you would expect from the ocean floor resulting in a very typical sedimentary rock formation,  further eroded by millions of years of desert heat, rain, abrasion and wind.
    El Capitan, West Texas
  • One of the most striking and beautiful of all the "barrel" cacti of the American Southwestern deserts, the claret cup cactus (also known regionally by many names such as the kingcup, queencup, hedgehog cactus, pitaya roja, etc.) has large, showy and brilliantly red flowers that attract and are pollinated by hummingbirds. Unlike most cacti, the flowers of the claret cup stay open at night. Some native American tribes who shared the same habitat would collect these cacti, burn off the sharp spines, and mash them into a pulp with some locally procured sweetener (honey?) and bake them into mini sweet cakes. This one was found and photographed on a beautiful spring day in the Guadalupe Mountains National Park in Northwestern Texas.
    Claret Cup Cactus
  • Once an ancient Permian ocean reef, these hills and cliffs that are part of the Guadalupe Mountains in Northwestern Texas near Salt Flat are an example of one the world's very best and oldest fossilized coral reefs. Now part of the Chihuahuan Desert the area is teeming with sea life fossils.
    McKittrick Canyon in the Guadalupe M..ains