The huge beauty and profusion of the desert can be easily seen in one place in Tucson, Arizona. Known as the Arizona Genus Sonora Desert Museum [“Desert Museum”], this gorgeous and convenient site is host to a profusion of plants, birds and animate beings native to the desert. Home to more than than 300 animate being species and 1200 works in natural settings, it is a photographer's paradise.

Located in the Tucson Mountain Park just a few statute miles outside of Tucson, the Desert Museum was founded in 1952. The private, non-profit-making organization, dedicated to the preservation of the Sonoran Desert, offers a zoological park, a botanical garden, an fine art gallery and a geology museum. The Desert Museum is a 15 minute thrust from the bosom of Tucson and is unfastened every twenty-four hours of the year. Hours are from 8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. from October through February, and 7:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. from March through September. The entranceway fee is $9 for adults.

While this is in fact a “museum,” don't be confused by the name. The installation is out in the unfastened and experiences more than like a menagerie or a park. It includes almost two statute miles of paved and soil ways through 21 estate of desert.

WHAT YOU can exposure THERE

The hardest thing about this location is deciding what to photograph. Should you pass your time shot in the cactus garden or the hummingbird aviary? Bash you first spell through the pollenation garden filled with bees, butterflies and moths, or visit the respective exhibits of mammals, including black bears, mountain lions, Bighorn sheep, wolves, British shilling cat, fox and coyote? It will take respective visits to take in all of this.

Docents - trained military volunteers - have on achromatic shirts and are available throughout the Museum to reply your inquiries and to give demonstrations. One docent enthusiastically shared his Mexican Feather Boa serpent with me, while another held a screeching bird of Minerva and explained the differences between the many species of owls. While there is much to photograph, don't go so enamored with the assorted topics that you bury about making your best images. Backgrounds and people will be your greatest challenges. Tripods are allowed everywhere, but marks counsel photographers to be aware of the other visitors. Put your lens system right up to the birdcages so that the cages are so out of focusing they can't be seen in your concluding photo. Avoid photographing the animate beings in dappled or uneven visible visible light (where parts of the animate being are in shadiness and other parts in light). Like many zoos, the animate beings often are sleeping around corners where they are hard to exposure so talking with trainers, docents and museum staff to see when they feed the animals. This is when they will be most active.

TIPS FOR shooting THERE

You also have got to drill your technique. For example, the hummingbirds move fast as lightening, so it's impossible to follow them to shoot. Instead, expression where they perch or feed, put up your shot for the best background, and then patiently wait for the hummingbirds to go back - they will. While the visible light is best both morning time and afternoon, the animate beings are more than active early in the day. Be careful to avoid the bright background where the mountain king of beasts wishes to perch. Note that the Desert Cringle Trail, place to the collared peccary and coyote, is a relatively steep and hot trail.

You'll desire a long telephotograph lens system in the scope of 300-400 millimeter to frame in the wildlife. An extension tubing or telephoto/macro volition let for stopping point focusing of the hummingbirds. For the full compliment of images, add a wide-angle lens system system for the few landscape shots and a macro instruction lens for the cactus garden. In improver to the birds and mammals, the Desert Museum have first-class reptile, invertebrates and submerged exhibits, as well as a mineral display. The visible light in these countries is inadequate for photography, however.

The heat energy of the desert do it a hard visit to the Desert Museum in summer. In October during my visit, the twelve noon heat energy was tolerable with a chapeau and sunglasses, but the temperatures were more than comfortable during the early morning time and late afternoon. One docent advised that April is the best time to see for desert flowers, but she tells her friends to see in March when it's cooler.

DIRECTIONS

For more than information, bank check the website at www.desertmuseum.org, Oregon phone call 520-883-1380. The computer address is 2021 N. Kinney Road, Tucson, AZ. To acquire there, take I-10 to the Speedway Avenue issue and travel West for about 10 miles. Note that Speedway Avenue turns into Bill Gates Base On Balls Road along the way, and be certain to halt at the two scenic position turnouts there. Bend right at the dead end onto Kinney Road, and thrust for three miles. The Desert Museum will be on your left. If you get via the Tucson airport, marks will direct you to the Desert Museum by manner of Highway 86. I establish this to be the longer and less efficient approach, but you see more than of the beautiful Tucson Mountain Park this way. Also utilize this path if you are carrying a trailer, because the Bill Gates Base On Balls Road is steep and winding as it goes over a mountain pass. The Desert Museum supplies a enormous copiousness of fantastic photographic and educational chances in one place, and is deserving many visits.

MISCELLANEOUS

Food: There are four nutrient installations on the Desert Museum property, ranging from a bite barroom to insouciant fine-dining. No picnicking is allowed inside the place owed to the presence of animals, but a little field day country is available just outside the entrance. Additional big field day countries are located throughout the Tucson Mountain Park, including the San Juan Carlos field day country adjacent to the Desert Museum on Kinney Road.

Lodging: Since the Desert Museum is close to business district Tucson, there are tons of places to lease a hotel room. Convenient hotels include the Four Points Sheraton Hotel (800-843-8052), the Marriott University Park Hotel (520-792-4100), and the Red Roof Hostel (520-744-8199). The Gilbert Beam Campsite (RV friendly) is located on Kinney Road about two statute miles sou'-east from the Desert Museum (take a right bend when leaving the Museum).

Other Necessities: Restrooms, shaded remainder countries and H2O fountains are scattered conveniently throughout the Museum, including on the relatively long, hot Desert Cringle Trail. The Museum have two gift stores stocked with a supply of batteries, movie and other necessities. Bring a wide-brimmed hat, sunscreen and comfortable, hardy shoes. Trousers will maintain the cactus acerate leaves at bay, especially if you venture into the desert for that sunset shot. The closest gas station and convenience marketplace are located four statute miles sou'-east (a right bend from the Desert Museum exit) on Kinney Road.

Caution: The sun can be rough and the air is dry. Drink tons of fluids. Also short letter that pets are not allowed in the parkland because of the wildlife, but make not go forth them unattended in your car. Wildlife, including snakes, lizards and coyotes, can wander throughout the Museum's grounds.

Other Local Areas of Interest: The Saguaro National Park (http://www.nps.gov/sagu/), another important member of the Genus Sonora Desert, boundary lines the Tucson Mountain Park. Famous for its giant sahuaro cacti that sometime attain high of 50 feet, the Park offers respective hiking trails and scenic thrusts that supply entree to great photograph opportunities. The Old Tucson Studio, where many cowpuncher movies have got been shot, is just southwesterly of the intersection point of Bill Gates Base On Balls Road and Kinney Road. On your manner to the Desert Museum via Speedway Boulevard, you will go through The Wildlife Museum, full of stuffed animate beings from around the world. A couple of visitants to the Desert Museum told me that the Colossal Cave located in Vail, Arizona (about an hr thrust from Tucson), which is on the National Register of Historic Places, is a must see. www.colossalcave.com

Copyright 2005 Carolyn E. Wright