Articles by Bo Mackison

'Golden Hornet'

I’ve been to the University of Wisconsin – Madison Arboretum several times in the past week. The spring flowering trees are making their annual color statement.

'Spring Snow'

The crab apples are in full bloom; the lilacs are beginning to bloom. The trees are in the Longenecker Horticultural Gardens just north of the Visitor Center, a garden begun when the Arboretum was established in 1934.

'Pink Spires'

With more than 2,000 plants on display, this 50-acre area is the premier collection of trees and shrubs in Wisconsin. Today the Gardens hold one of the most up-to-date collections of flowering crabapples in the United States.

spines and curves

‘Agave Americana’–not a cactus, though frequently referred to as one. Spines are sharp–very sharp. Speaking from experience. Photographed at the Boyce Thompson Arboretum, an arboretum specializing in arid plants, world-wide, and located near Superior, Arizona–about an hour east of Phoenix.

as Lovely as a Rose

The sun finally peeked out from the clouds yesterday evening, and I insisted on postponing dinner until I could get a few photographs of a tulip bed I had my eye on. Once I was there, the sun played peek-a boo with me, and so it took me nearly an hour of waiting, and on and off shooting, to get the photos I wanted. All 98 of them! But with rain forecast for the next 3 days, it was now or not this year.

I finally took the leap and have started shooting totally in manual (instead of aperture priority which always sounded easier) and in RAW. Why I waited so long is beyond me. In many ways, it’s easier. I found myself always over-riding the aperture pre-sets anyway, so I’m not doing much, if anything, different, but it feels a lot better. And if I can get used to a single photo file being between 10 and 20 MB, then all will be fine. (I can remember when my first computer had 64K–the entire computer–so the size tends to boggle my mind. And fill up my memory cards quickly!)

This tulip reminds me of a rose, unfolding slowly, filled with promise. But I like that the tulip has less complexity and needs hardly any tending. And that it shows up early in the season when the need for flowers and color is heightened and really appreciated.

I’ll be switching between the local color and the photos from the trip to the Southwest. It makes me a bit dizzy, but I have so much I still want to share from the trip, mostly from Arizona. It will take me a few months, but I love re-living my trip through my photography.

Spring in the Desert

On our April trip to the Southwest, we visited the Boyce Thompson Arboretum near Superior, Arizona, about an hour’s drive east of Phoenix. The arboretum features collections of plants found not only in the Sonoran Desert, but in arid and desert lands around the world.

For anyone who thinks deserts are mostly sand and cactus, I offer this photograph as proof that the desert does indeed come alive in color.