it was a beautiful sunset but I couldn't find a good angle. I did like the color of the clouds and the green of this saguaro so I took it instead. Sometimes you have to drive miles to get the right angle on the sunset, started too late tonight.
I think you made the right call. I have nothing against sunsets, sunsets can be beautifully photogenic. (Though I rarely shoot them because unless they're a lead in to some expansive nighttime activity, I find them a little melancholy. It's the end of yet another day, and rarely can I look in the mirror and say "I achieved all that I set out to do today". A sunrise is a different matter; it's the promise of another chance to get things right, which is why my galleries are swamped with many sunrises and very few sets.) That, however, is not my point about this shot. This is; when you come down to it, a sunset (or rise) is just that. They all have a unique beauty about them, and the light has its own character in different parts of the world, but there's rarely anything about them that declares "this is where I am". This shot has that. There aren't many places in the world where a tall cactus projecting into that red sky can be found. I think we all sometimes get a bit blase about photographing our local regions because they become so familiar to us; the vegetation, the landscape and the sky become part of the furniture. But to the outside viewer it speaks of another place, very different from our own. In fewer words: this is a good shot. It speaks for your corner of the world, in its own language. And probably far better than a sunset alone would have. And the choice of angle, with the cactus almost looking up at the cloud, even reaching up to it, adds to it being something out of the ordinary.