This image was made in 2010 by Gary Larsen in Red Rock Crossing near Sedona, AZ from a Manfrotto Carbon One tripod aimed straight down over the thistle plant. The camera was a Nikon D300 converted to infrared with a Nikon 18-70 mm lens set at 56 mm. The exposure was at ISO 200 with an aperture of f/11 and a shutter speed of 1/80 second. I was captured by the repeating patterns of the spines as they receded into the center of the plant. It all seemed to create such an intimidating presence as it drew me in. Final processing was in Photoshop CS5 using the Curves tool followed by some sharpening.