I hated those things when I was in Tucson!!! I would just walk through the desert for 2 minutes, and be covered in those little pieces of cactus!! :) Nice image though! :)
So those little pricks are called Cholla, eh? 15 years ago a friend told me that people across the street from him had been tossed in jail for running a meth. lab. He knew that I collected cacti and succulents; so we met at his house and walked across the street. I got maybe 10 varieties of cacti including a very small specimen of this stuff. 10 years ago I got stabbed really badly and was picking the quills out of me for a few days. I dug up enough Cholla to fill two wheel barrows and dumped it in a large pit I dug. I did my best to eliminate any fragments. I've weed whacked it, sprayed it with Roundup, set it ablaze with gasoline and slammed it with sledge hammers and other implements of destruction. The deadline for weed abatement is June 1 and the weeds in my yard are five feet high. You can be sure that I'll wander into a small patch of this stuff since it cannot be killed. A former boss of mine lives between here and the pool where I swim. For the last five years I've dropped off a fine collection of cactus bits in his front yard as I drive passed.
Oh, I forgot about your posting. It's really neat. I love the colors of the cactus and the background. Excellent job of maintaining detail and using contrast to create real depth to the shot.