Heading Dead Straight into the Storm

Driving through Painted Desert

Heading into the Storm © 2014 Bo Mackison

“When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.”
~ Haruki Murakami

Lookout Views from Cape Royal Road – North Rim of Grand Canyon

Grand Canyon -Kaibab Plateau

Point Imperial © 2014 Bo Mackison

We have become great because of the lavish use of our resources. But the time has come to inquire seriously what will happen when our forests are gone, when the coal, the iron, the oil, and the gas are exhausted, when the soils have still further impoverished and washed into the streams, polluting the rivers, denuding the fields and obstructing navigation. ~ Theodore Roosevelt (1906)

Point Imperial, 8803 feet in elevation,
Overlooking Grand Canyon to the east, and beyond, the Painted Desert.

Grand Canyon -Kaibab Plateau

Vista Encantada © 2014 Bo Mackison

The lack of power to take joy in outdoor nature is as real a misfortune as the lack of power to take joy in books. ~ Theodore Roosevelt (1906)

Grand Canyon -Kaibab Plateau

Cape Royal © 2014 Bo Mackison

When your spirit cries for peace, come to a world of canyons deep in the old land, feel the exultation of high plateaus, the strength of moving waters, the simplicity of sand and grass, the silence of growth. ~ August Frugé

Cape Royal, the point, the southernmost view on the North Rim,
the widest panorama of any Grand Canyon overlook
the gorge has a view of about 270° of the horizon.

Look to Marble Canyon in the north, gaze south towards the Palisades of the Desert.

Grand Canyon -Kaibab Plateau

Angel’s Window from Walhalla Point © 2014 Bo Mackison

How the striking of the great clock, whose hours are millions of years, reverberates out of the abyss of the past!
~ John Burroughs

Grand Canyon -Kaibab Plateau

Angel’s Window, North Rim of Grand Canyon © 2014 Bo Mackison

. . . each man sees himself in the Grand Canyon – each one makes his own Canyon before he comes, each one brings and carries away his own Canyon. ~ Carl Sandburg

Grand Canyon -Kaibab Plateau

Grand Canyon Rock Formations © 2014 Bo Mackison

We are prone to speak of the resources of this country as inexhaustible; this is not so. ~ Theodore Roosevelt (1906)

5th Annual Photo Alphabet – Part IV

N is for Nature and Non-attachment

Nature's Abstract

Nature’s Pattern © 2012 Bo Mackison

Even though I photograph almost any subject, I spend as much time as I can in the natural world and take a greater percentage of nature subjects than any other. I also like to play with nature photos, especially macro-photographs such as the above barrel cactus. I loved the symmetry emphasized with a black and white conversion.

Not only do I love to photograph desert plants, I love learning about them. I find their various ways of adapting to their environment fascinating. In order to survive, they have an extensive system of spiny protrusions and other such things to dissuade potential munchers.

I’ve been working on the idea of non-attachment – the idea that too much attachment for a specific outcome can cause difficulties. And I was thinking that the cactus is the perfect symbol for non-attachment. Oh, yeah!

O is for Observation and Opportunity.

Observation Deck above Buttermilk Falls

Observation Deck above Buttermilk Falls © 2010 Bo Mackison

These “O” words speak deeply to me about photography – my photography and photography in general.

Observation is so key to photography that it is almost too obvious to include in an alphabet like this. Observational skills are honed in the search for a photograph. That is not to say that a camera to required to polish observational skills, but a camera becomes a constant reminder to look around, to see beyond the initial glance. I consider my camera a great prop, an observation kick-starter.

Opportunity is another one of those obvious words that partner well with photography. Some people take photographs at special occasions (or opportunities) – a vacation, a holiday, an annual gathering, a perfect sunset. But opportunity is more about “being” there for the experience of the photograph rather than “finding” a photographic subject.

Any subject is a subject worthy of photographic exercise. I’ve photographed more walls than I would once have thought possible, or sane. Yes, walls. Wall with shadows, walls with texture, walls with vines, walls of adobe, brick, stone, historical walls in ruins. (Maybe I should copy and paste this under “W”!)

I’ve also taken thousands of photographs of trees. Recently I realized that there is some form of tree – perhaps a branch, a shadow, a leaf – in a large percentage of my photos. I didn’t start with the intent to photograph trees in such depth, but it seems the trees found me. Or perhaps I’ve never met a tree I didn’t like, one I didn’t think worthy of a tree portrait.

I’m not saying that I don’t take advantage of a photographic opportunity that comes my way. I carry a camera almost all the time – whether I’m going across country, across the city, or across the parking lot. You don’t have to wait for a special opportunity for a photograph; opportunity will find you if you’re paying attention.

P is for Perspective and Place.

The Long Road

Disappearing Road © 2012 Bo Mackison

And then there is the perspective of a lonely, open road at dusk. This is a photograph of a Texas panhandle highway. Telephone poles, grain elevators, semi-trucks, and a Texas Highway sign. It’s all about place. And perspective.

Q is for Questions and Quotations.

Badlands-There's a Trail up There!

Mountain Trail © 2011 Bo Mackison

I sometimes take photographs to find the answers to questions I am pondering. Sometimes I take photographs to put the questions I don’t know how to ask into a concrete form. And sometimes I take photographs because I have questions that don’t have answers.

When I begin to write a blog post, and I have a photograph I want to share, I sometimes don’t have the words to accompany the photo. There is a meaning in the photo, but it’s not easily seen. So I go searching through my many dozens of unorganized journals for a relevant quotation. It seldom takes me more than a few minutes to find a quote that says exactly what I was struggling to say.

Here is one such photograph, and the quote I found to pair it with:

There are hundreds of paths up the mountain,
all leading in the same direction,
so it doesn’t matter which path you take.
The only one wasting time is the one
who runs around and around the mountain,
telling everyone that his or her path is wrong.

~ Hindu teaching

—————-

Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. Part V of the Annual Photo Alphabet continues with  Rituals thru Universe.

 

 

Grand Canyon Sequence at Sunset

Grand Canyon 7:23 PM

Grand Canyon 7:23 PM © 2010 Bo Mackison

Grand Canyon 7:26 PM

Grand Canyon 7:26 PM © 2010 Bo Mackison

Grand Canyon 7:29 PM

Grand Canyon 7:29 PM © 2010 Bo Mackison

Grand Canyon 7:31 PM

Grand Canyon 7:31 PM © 2010 Bo Mackison

October 7. Sunset was 7:38 PM Mountain Standard Time.

Grand Canyon 7:46 PM

Grand Canyon 7:46 PM © 2010 Bo Mackison

Grand Canyon 7:48 PM

Grand Canyon 7:48 PM © 2010 Bo Mackison

Grand Canyon 7:51 PM

Grand Canyon 7:51 PM © 2010 Bo Mackison

Grand Canyon 7:52 PM

Grand Canyon 7:52 PM © 2010 Bo Mackison

Solitary Tree at Sunrise – Yellowstone National Park

Sunlit Tree at Black Sand Basin in Yellowstone

Solitary Tree at Sunrise © 2010 Bo Mackison

Early light from an autumn sunrise gave a magical quality to this tree in the Black Sand Basin in Yellowstone National Park. The mountainside in the background shows the new growth and the remnants of the destroyed lodgepole pines from the 1988 fire that affected nearly a third of the park.