Minnesota Landscape Arboretum

www.arboretum.umn.edu

The Minnesota Landscape Arboretum features more than 1,000 acres of magnificent gardens, model landscapes, and natural areas -- from woodlands and wetlands to prairie -- with extensive collections of northern-hardy plants. Tour the Arboretum on 12.5 miles of garden paths and hiking trails. Walk the close gardens, or take the tram on the Three-Mile Drive to see more gardens and collections.

The Arboretum, as part of the University of Minnesota, provides a community and a national resource for horticultural and environmental information, research and public education; to develop and evaluate plants and horticultural practices for cold climates; and to inspire and delight all visitors with quality plants in well designed and maintained displays, collections, model landscapes, and conservation areas.

In 2008 the Arboretum is celebrating its mission to the people of Minnesota with the publication of “Northern Treasure, The Story of the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum and Horticultural Research Center” to commemorate the Arboretum’s 100th anniversary. John Gregor of Coldsnap Photography was commissioned by the Arboretum to provide photographs to illustrate this commemorative book. Our hosts for the N4C convention tour of the Arboretum, the Arboretum Photographers Society, will be sharing their favorite Arboretum locations with us. For more info, see http://www.arboretum.umn.edu/

Arboretum Photographers Society

www.arboretumphotographers.com

The Arboretum Photographers Society is a group of photographers whose roots are in a four-day workshop (Fall 2006) with John Gregor and who wanted more: more sharing, more learning… more Arboretum. With the Society’s love of the Arboretum, it was a natural step to give back to the Arboretum using our skills as photographers. Nancy Westby and Michael DeSmit met with the staff at the Arboretum and in April 2007 the University of Minnesota Arboretum Photographers Society was born.

It is the mission of the Society to assist the Arboretum by fulfilling photography requests. One of the Society’s first projects was to photograph all the memorial benches for the archives. This involved capturing three views: the bench setting, the memorial tag, and the view seen from the bench.

The reputation of the Society as volunteers is growing, and the Arboretum staff is continually supplying the Society with requests. The photos can be seen on the Arboretum kiosks, website, newsletter and brochures.

The Arboretum Photographers Society meets monthly to discuss various aspects of their craft. Photo shoots are also scheduled. The Society has grown to 37 active members over the course of this past year. If you are interested in joining us, please contact Nancy Westby at 952-937-9086 or nwestby@mac.com or Michael DeSmit at 952-412-8813 or crowmedicine@mchsi.com.