Carrying the Torch

Carrying the Torch

Carrying the Torch © 2012 Bo Mackison

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!

Torch on Fire

Torch on Fire

Torch on Fire © 2012 Bo Mackison

Nature is man’s teacher. She unfolds her treasures to his search, unseals his eyes, illumes his mind, and purifies his heart; an influence breathes from all the sights and sounds of her existence. ~Alfred Billings Street

A busy, last-minute kind of day full of errands and packing, so I will offer you this photograph of the Pink Torch Cactus in bloom and a few wise words from Alfred Billings Street. Street was an American author and poet who lived in the 1800s. He had some insightful thoughts about the gifts of nature.

———————-

Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. Today she is getting ready to begin her cross-country travel.

Parting Gifts from the Desert

Macro Torch Cactus

Torch Cactus © 2012 Bo Mackison

My heart found its home long ago in the beauty, mystery, order and disorder of the flowering earth. ~ Lady Bird Johnson

I am on the home stretch — literally. In 36 hours, I will point my car towards the east, and then north, to begin the long drive home. Happily, Sherpa is flying in tomorrow, so no one has to drive alone for three and a half days.

I had today and tomorrow scheduled with packing, returning library books, changing addresses, saying good byes with neighbors and arranging for the many things that need arranging before a long trip.

And then I received an email from the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum. They were sending a short note to all their members  to let us now that the dazzling “Fireworks Cacti” were now in full bloom, and would be for only a few days.

So instead of following my original plans, I made room in my schedule for a three-hour photo shoot of some of the most unusual cactus flowers I have ever seen.  The flowers are in all the warm colors one associates with desert and heat — yellows, hot pinks, oranges, reds. Once I saw the cacti all in bloom, I had a very difficult time leaving. (I finally left after I’d taken over 600 photos, but only because I had filled my 16 gig memory card — and that’s a huge card!)

So — the cactus are called Torch Cactus, and they bloom for only a few days each year. They are not a native plant to the Sonoran desert, but they thrive here, and have become a landscape favorite because of their hardiness and beautiful color displays.

I promise. There are many more amazing photographs of these very photogenic flowers to come.

—————–

Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She traveled to Arizona to live and photograph the desert’s beauty for one hundred days. Getting ready for a drive.