Plant's Personality

Trees are individuals, just like people. And sometimes there are thousands of the same individual, for plants. This is not in reference to a tree's shape, or the history.
From a handful of japanese maples seeds I have maples with red bark and with green bark. I have leaves with very pronounced lobes, some like Canadian flag, others have 3 lobes instead of 5.
From another batch of seedlings, I have one tree which is very sensitive to dryness compared to its siblings. It will droop at the slightest provocation, though its growing conditions were identical (until I learned it was different). By the way - it is not more thirsty, it just wilts faster.

I am wondering how to incorprate such details into my bonsai.

Photography

I hate to show my friends pictures of my bonsai because they "WOW" in real life and they "uh" when I show pictures.

I have arranged for my photographer friend to teach me how to photograph my bonsai better. I don't thing composition is the problem. It is depth and color and background contrast that I have the most trouble with. With many of my pictures of my bosai, it is hard to tell the difference between the bonsai and the shrubs in the backyard. But even with a solid backdrop I find the back branches 'vanish.' Part of bonsai is the 3-dimensionality, something the 2-D picture steals away somehow.

Learning Bonsai

Oddly, there is no specific "beginning" when learning bonsai. I learned about bonsai with wild collected trees, meaning I had to learn to shape the tops of trees first; I had a trunk already and knew how to keep it alive. Others start from seed, so they must learn about trunk growing first. Still others purchase ready made bonsai and need to learn pruning techniques before anything else.

Workshops ($50-$80) start participants off with a tree, so they do not teach selection principles. They cover identifying the bonsai within the raw material, and how to make the tree like that. They do not cover how to care for the tree horticulturally. Nor do they teach how to refine a tree with the passage of time.

Bonsai is learned gradually; through trial and error; reading books; conversing with people of experience; and looking at bonsai trees. The Joshua Roth New Talent Competition considers "new talent" those with less then 10 years experience.

Dug up trees

There is construction going on near my house. They are putting up a condo or something. They ravaged most of the plants on the lot, but there were a few left. I have looked at them every day for 3 months. I asked the foreman if I could dig up some of the trees left on the lot. He was more then happy to let me do so so long as I was careful and did not get hurt on his site.

These trees are honeysuckle. They bud back super well from old wood and hard cuts. They also shed bark like mad. Fortunately, they were planted in front of a cement wall. The roots did not have a chance to spread far, but they were deep. I just hacked at the deep roots with my shovel. I took home 4 root balls, which ended up as 6 plants. One is thick (2 1/2 inch), two have nice shape and taper, two have dynamite roots, and the third is pleasantly grotesque. On the last I had to choose between the roots which emerged from the trunk at the surface of the soil, or the the heavier roots from the bottom of the bucket the plant was grown in before planting out. I chose the thick roots, but this leaves me with a bulge where the top roots were.

Mr Miyogi's Bonsai, from The Karate Kid

Mr. Miyagi, of the movie "Karate Kid," is a bonsai enigma.
Mr. Miyagi gave Daniel, the hero of the movie Karate kid one, a bonsai tree. But this occurred on the first meeting of Mr. Miyagi and Daniel. Furthermore, Mr. Miyagi offered Daniel a tree for his mother, someone he had never met.
Mr. Miyagi had eight trees visible in the movie. Since he was an apartment building manager, I assume this was his whole collection. I do not understand why Mr. Miyagi was so generous with his bonsai "children." I thought he must have hated some trees and wanted to get rid of them; but he actually gave Daniel a choice of what trees to take. Whatever, Mr Miyagi.
Also, in the third movie Mr. Miyagi takes his prized bonsai and plants it in the wild, in a deep crevasse by the sea shore. Daniel tries to recover this masterpiece left by Miyagi years ago, only to drop the tree in seawater. Miyagi nurses the tree back to health, as any bonsai adept could do.
My Question is: what would you do with your best bonsai when you are perfectly healthy and have lots of time but no-longer want to do bonsai? I bet that bonsai would go to a good home and artist, and would not be abandoned in the wild.
This also shows Daniel had no clue about bonsai: a bonsai tree with 5 year wild/field growth, and it's a pine - this would not fetch a good price on any market. The branches would be leggy.

Individual Bonsai Histories

Today I showed a friend the bonsai tree I have been working on for her. This is always a great experience. My friend and her family gushed about how lovely it was and how special they felt. I think the most exciting part was not the nice shape of the tree or the fabulous naturally sharied trunk. The most exciting part is the tree's history. I rescued this plant, species unknown, from the garden in front of my friend's workplace. It was planted on one side of a walkway but its partner on the other side had died. I plunked it in my garden as a plant-plant, but when I dug it up it clearly had a bonsai trunk. The plant budded back well, as well. My friend had since done wonderful things at that workplace and informed me that the plant and her started at that company at the same time - in the beginning, 12 years ago. I have had the plant for 5 years. I have been training it for 3 years and I have known I was going to give it to my friend for 2 years now. Today is the first time my friend saw it but she has known about it for about 6 months.
By the way, she gave me Christmas cookies.