Artist Profile: Rob Boone

I love Tucson and the beautiful desert that surrounds it. I have been a professional musician since 1975 and Realtor with Long Realty with my harpist wife for the last four years. I spent a few years as a musician in Los Angelos and several years traveling the world on cruise ships. 

My wife and I have seen incredible changes to the entire Tucson area over the last three and four decades - we know what draws people to the area. It’s the same things that we love: the beautiful mountains, the stunning Sonoran Desert, where we enjoy hiking and photographing wildlife, and the vibrant arts and music community.

My music work has included performing with Ray Charles, Sammy Davis Jr, Frankie Valli, Moody Blues, Johnny Mathis, Bernadette Peters, Kristin Chenoweth, and many others. I have played with the national tours of Wicked, Beautiful, Chicago, Lion King, Hello Dolly, A Chorus Line, Full Monty, Sister Act, The Producers and many more. I am currently playing trombone with the Arizona Theatre Company’s production of “Cabaret” which runs thru most of December.

I have lived on the same corner of the Pima Canyon wash for most of the last forty-five years. I know the surrounding desert flora and fauna very well and began photographing the wildlife in our neighborhood over the last decade. The wash behind our home is a nature corridor for bobcats, coyotes, raccoons, skunks, owls. hawks, quail, gila monsters and everything in between.

My favorite subjects to photograph are the bobcat kittens that show up over the years. It seems the bobcat mothers will bring their kittens to hang out in our trees and on top of our roof. She will leave them safe from coyotes and other predators while going off to hunt. Often she will return with a rabbit for the family to take turns on. I have had several encounters where she drops down and nurses visible from our home windows.

I also enjoy photographing hummingbirds. It is challenging to capture them in flight and perched in natural settings. Raptors are also a favorite subject and I have many photos of owls, osprey, kestrels and many species of hawks.

Madera Canyon is one of my favorite areas to hike and photograph the unique ecosystem. There are beautiful elegant trogons, owls, exotic hummingbird species, summer tanagers, varied buntings, hawks, deer and many more species.

I try to capture the personality of my wildlife subjects and try to get as close to them as I can. I love making eye contact with my subjects and try to wait for the right moment to photograph an interesting expression.

There are several Arizona artists that I have been privileged to collaborate with. Diana Madaras (https://www.madaras.com )

has painted several of my photos and added her unique stylization of the images. Tucson artist Chuck Watkins (https://shopwatkinsart.com) has also painted several of my photographs in his unique style. I enjoyed collaborating with scratchboard artist Paul Hopman (https://paulhopman.com/product/bisbee/) on one of my bobcat kitten images.

If you would like to see more of my photography please visit my webpage at 
https://robboonephotography.zenfolio.com. 

I also have a Facebook photography page at 
https://www.facebook.com/robboonephotography/