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Harvey Carapella is an accomplished award winning bonsai artist living in Rochester, New York. He worked as a graphic artist for 36 years at the Rochester Institute of Technology where he additionally taught basic design and drawing for 44 years. Before growing bonsai he raised reptiles and spent considerable time making realistic panorama cages for his slinky pets. His attention to detail has now been transformed to his bonsai.

Each fall, the Gardens at Lake Merritt host the Autumn Lights Festival. The event is a fundraiser for the seven-acre garden in Oakland’s Lakeside Park.

I’ve long found that the hardest part of photographing bonsai is figuring out how high to hold the camera.

Mas Nakajima created beautiful works of art by combining viewing stones with paintings. He referred to this work as Suiseki Art.

The first time I visited a fall exhibit in Japan, I was struck by the number of fruiting bonsai. Every aisle offered examples of crabapple, princess persimmon, pyracantha, or hawthorn bonsai with colorful fruit. I hadn’t realized what a good opportunity the season was to show off trees with fruit as I hadn’t been exposed to so many fruiting bonsai in California exhibits.

Here’s a six year-old pine with a large sacrifice branch.

Two years ago this month, Daisaku Nomoto did a demonstration at the Pacific Northwest Bonsai Clubs Association convention in Olympia, Washington. His helpers were Boon Manakitivipart, Matt Reel and Tyler Sherrod – quite a team! Here’s the finished product.

Here’s another black pine that’s slowly regaining vigor. There’s plenty of new foliage on the strongest shoots, but many of the weaker branches have just a few new needles each.

I’d like to write a few articles this season about fall work for pines, in particular needle-pulling and thinning.

The variety of accent plants on display at the 6th U.S. National Bonsai Exhibition was fantastic. Here is a small sample.