Arizona Sonora Desert Museum

Cactus Flower in Pink and White

May 8, 2012 by Bo Mackison 10 Comments

We all walk in mysteries. We do not know what is stirring in the atmosphere that surrounds us. ~ Goethe

I am starting to understand this. I am a slow changer.

I packed my bags with a small amount of trepidation and drive from Madison to Tucson last January. I looked forward to the change in weather, to the sunshine and warm days.

I arrived, expecting to slide right in to a new life, and instead struggled for weeks to acclimate to a new place, a new routine, the newness of solitary living.

And, eventually, I slide into the routines of Arizona, and I feel I am where I belong. (Except when I get lonely and long for companionship.)

Three months and a few extra days pass, and I again pack a few bags and with a small amount of trepidation I leave my space in Tucson and drive to Madison. I look forward to again being immersed in the greens of spring and my circle of family.

Again, I arrive. And again I struggle as I adapt to the old familiar place, the old routine with a few new twists, and the change from living a solitary, very quiet life with a lightly filled calendar to days that are not solitary, quiet, nor lightly demanding.

I am giving myself time and space to re-orient myself. And that is good.

——————-

Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She is also a slow changer – she requires time to adjust to new places and new routines. And that is an OK thing.

p.s. The sun is shining this morning.

Filed Under: Photography Tagged With: Arizona, Arizona Sonora Desert Museum, Bo Mackison photographer, botanicals, cactus flower, Canon EOS 5D Mark II, color, desert flowers, macro-photography, nature, Seeded Earth Photography, Southwest, torch cactus, Tucson Arizona

Flaming Torch Flower

May 7, 2012 by Bo Mackison 5 Comments

“A garden is a delight to the eye and a solace for the soul.” ~ Sadi

Yes, it is another view of the famed Torch Cactus, the desert flower I fell in love with a few weeks ago, just days before I traveled from the arid, hot deserts of Arizona to the moist, cool Midwest. It is a good thing (for me, at least) that I was quite infatuated with these particular flowers and so took hundreds of photographs of them in different poses, colors, etc.

In fact, these flowers will be, though unintentional when photographed, one of my themes for a week or so.

Since returning to Wisconsin, I’ve managed to mess up my photo catalogs and so my many thousands of photos (including photos of subjects other than the Torch Cactus flowers) are hiding somewhere in my computer or on one of my external hard drives, but I’ll be darned if I can figure what the magic words are to make them appear again. (Sigh. Big sigh. Oh heck, a really, really big sigh!!)

And yes, I could take some new photographs and re-install all my software and reboot my computer a dozen time with the hope that I would then have some new photographs to work with.

But . . . since I’ve been back in Wisconsin (one week today) I have seen a great deal of rain clouds and rain, two things I work hard to be grateful for, because they are greatly responsible for all these glorious greens in the trees and the grasses and the gardens. But wet conditions have caused delays in my outdoor photography plans. So I am posting a new view of the Torch Cactus flower.

Patience. Soon, very soon, the sun will shine. I’m sure of it.

—————

Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She is cleaning her house, and occasionally checking the weather channel. Just in case . . .

Filed Under: Photography Tagged With: Arizona, Arizona Sonora Desert Museum, Bo Mackison photographer, botanicals, cactus, Canon EOS 5D Mark II, color, desert flowers, macro-photography, Midwest weather, nature, rain, red flower, Seeded Earth Photography, Southwest, torch cactus, Tucson Arizona

Torch Cacti in Bloom at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum

April 30, 2012 by Bo Mackison 6 Comments

What a marvelous send-off I had this past week!

I have visited the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum just west of Tucson two or three times a week since mid-January. Each time I visit, I manage to find new wonders. Sometimes I sit on a bench and simply absorb the desert surroundings. Sometimes I visit with the docents who amaze me with the depths of their knowledge on almost any desert topic. Last week I stopped at the Prairie dog exhibit to watch the new babies pop out of their burrows — only the second day they were out and about exploring the world of the sun.

And on my last visit to the Desert Museum I was treated to an explosion of color as the Torch Cactus Garden had just erupted in a display of red, pink, yellow, orange and white. No wonder the sign in this garden bed proclaims these flowers a “Fireworks of Color!”

Each bloom only lasts one day and they bloomed early this year. I photographed these flowers over a period of several hours on April 25, a month earlier than is typical. (Last year’s peak bloom was around May 24-25.)

The Torch Cactus (Trichocereus) is not native to Arizona but adapts well to this climate and to landscaped gardens when planted in a filtered sun setting. I imagine these plants would be welcome in any desert garden – what gorgeous, showy flowers they are!

———————–

Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC, living and photographing in southern Arizona from January through April. She returns for the July monsoons.

Filed Under: Photography Tagged With: Arizona, Arizona Sonora Desert Museum, Bo Mackison photographer, botanicals, cactus flowers, Canon EOS 5D Mark II, color, desert flowers, nature, Seeded Earth Photography, Southwest, torch cactus, Tucson Arizona

In the Abstract

April 29, 2012 by Bo Mackison 4 Comments

One looks, looks long, and the world comes in. ~ Joseph Campbell

The sharp edges of the desert are softening. The sunrise I watched every morning is hidden behind the gray clouds of a Midwestern spring rain and I hold the sunrise in my memory. The cactus flowers that I spoke to every day, gently touched and examined as if I were examining the delicacy and newness and the miracle of my first born child, those flowers are by now wilting and other buds are opening.

I miss my daily exercise on the desert paths, I miss watching the prickly pear cactus in the back arroyo and guessing which buds would next open. I miss the bright sunshine, the heat of the light on my back and arms. I miss the ritual of preparation I had grown to enjoy, the ritual of applying the sun screen and hat and coverings, of gathering enough water and the right maps and my hiking stick and pack.

I miss the constant chatter and song of the many birds, the questioning of the owls, the late night and early morning cries of the coyote. I miss the road runners strutting past my glass doors, the quails playing hide and seek under the cactus, and especially the bobcat that would stop at the stoop of my porch, stare through my door, and then casually move on into the arroyo.

But none of this is gone. I close my eyes, and I remember. I shake awake my senses, recall the scent of the desert after a brief rainfall, the whirr of the hummingbirds as they sip nectar from the feeder, and the bzzz of the carpenter bee’s dip and dance, the almost constant questioning and answering of the pair of doves.

I can look into the bright colors of this photograph, the abstract lines and shapes, and it is almost as if I am looking into a crystal ball as I recall the past few months of desert days and nights.

—————-

Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She is on the road today, on her way back to her other home.

Filed Under: Art of Healing, Photography, Travel Tagged With: abstract photography, Arizona, Arizona Sonora Desert Museum, Bo Mackison photographer, botanical abstracts, cactus, Canon EOS 5D Mark II, color, desert flowers, macro-photography, Seeded Earth Photography, Southwest, Torch cactus flower, Tucson Arizona

Carrying the Torch

April 28, 2012 by Bo Mackison 8 Comments

I create my own auto-biography with the photographs I take. ~ Bo Mackison

On the road to Wisconsin, but recalling the many days I stayed in Arizona with great fondness, the many desert sights I visited with deep appreciation for nature’s beauty, and the many photographs I’ve created that will inspire life-long memories.

The photograph is an abstract botanical of one of the many Torch cactus flowers I photographed at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum a few days ago.

—————–

Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. Today she drove through part of New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, and half of Kansas. She looks forward to sleeping in her own bed very soon!

Filed Under: Photography, Travel Tagged With: abstract, Arizona, Arizona Sonora Desert Museum, Bo Mackison photographer, botanicals, cactus, Canon EOS 5D Mark II, color, desert flowers, macro-photography, nature, pink flower, Seeded Earth Photography, Southwest, torch cactus, Tucson Arizona

Cactus Flower in Pink and White

Flaming Torch Flower

Torch Cacti in Bloom at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum

In the Abstract

Carrying the Torch

Search This Blog

Recent Posts

Let’s Meet!

Article Topics

About Bo Mackison

Privacy Policy

Work With Bo

Offerings from the Desert