arizona wedding photography ~ brenda eden photography

Amber & John {engagement photography at Boyce Thompson Arboretum in Superior, Arizona}

Becky and I met up with Amber and John at the Boyce Thompson Arboretum for engagement photos. They are getting married next year! Amber and John went on one of their first dates at the Arboretum, and so they wanted to do their engagement photos here. And we are so glad they did, because Boyce Thompson is amazing. I wish I could live there. It's an arboretum that was started in 1923. It's on Highway 60 on the way to Superior (in Arizona), at the base of a 4,400 foot high mountain called Picketpost Mountain. There are over 3200 different kinds of plants there from all over the world. Since they are desert plants that had to adapt to arid conditions, some of them are sooo amazing and unusual looking. But it's at a high enough elevation that it gets a lot more rain than Phoenix, so it has lots of tall trees.

So as usual, we took about a kazillion photos and I want to post most of them here, but here are a few because it's possible that if I don't publish this soon I will keep adding photos until the end of time.

The leaves were changing colors, some trees looked like they were on fire!

I love making photographs in greenhouses--the light is always so perfect. And the greenhouses at Boyce Thompson have cactus plants from all over the world and some of them look out-of-this-world!

   

Amber, you're gorgeous. 

  

I was taking lots of photos with the tilt shift 45 mm lens. I like the dreamy, fairy-tale look I can get from it.It doesn't auto-focus, though, so you have to focus it yourself. Reminds me of when I was in high school and college taking photo classes and using my dad's old film camera. 

    

 Two images might give you a better idea of how massive this tree is in volume, height, etc. It's a Red Gum Eucalyptus, planted in 1926 and is more than 140 feet tall. It's registered as the biggest tree of its kind in the United States. info via  I bet you owls sleep in its branches.

  

        

           

                             

    

Thanks Amber and John for a fun afternoon! We can't wait for your wedding in the Spring!

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Boyce Thompson Arboretum and the Picket Post Mansion

Saturday I went to the Boyce Thompson Arboretum in Superior, Arizona. I'd been before, but never walked around the whole place like I did this time. I've seen this house, the Picket Post Mansion, from the road but never been this close. Construction started on it in 1923 and Boyce Thompson spent part of his last years there. Of course, I am so curious to know what it looks like on the inside. I picture art deco style furnishings like those in the Hearst Castle, but all covered in sheets and inches of dust. Type "Picket Post Mansion" and "haunted" into Google and you don't return anything interesting. I really want to know the stories of this house.

I really wanted to see Fall this year up north. I'm pretty sure I missed it this year. But at the Arboretum, it seemed like it was peak time for the trees turning gold and red. I want to go back so much, but I am not sure if I will make it back there before the leaves all turn and fall. It all seems to happen so quickly. You really have to be paying attention, or you miss it for an entire year.

In July, you don't sit there bemoaning the hundred and fifteen degrees and think I really have to arrange my life so that when it cools off I don't miss Fall. At least I don't, but maybe I should. I kinda think it needs that much advance planning!

So here is what I am planning. Some day this winter it might snow. It might. Remember March 10-11, 2006? Remember later January 2007? It snowed at elevations low enough that you could see snow on the Superstition Mountains. Well if that happens again this year or in 2009, I want to be ready. Even if it means dropping everything and just going. I really, really want to see Boyce Thompson Arboretum after a snow fall.