Contemplate the Beauty

Orange Poppy

Orange Poppy © 2012 Bo Mackison

Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. ~ Rachel Carson

I am heading into a stretch of days that will be a test of my endurance. As I was looking through my notebooks of quotes, looking for a quotation to pair with this cheerful poppy, I came across the above quote by Rachel Carson.

Contemplate the beauty of the earth. There will be found reserves of strength that will endure.

Contemplate the beauty of the earth.

Contemplate the beauty.

————–

Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.

Poppy Composition

Composed Poppy

 Poppy Composition © 2011 Bo Mackison

Seeing requires a return to the time before you had words, concepts, and definitions for everything.
~ David Hockney

The above quotation is more relevant to this photograph than it might initially appear. When I began to work with the RAW photo files of this flower, I knew its name. Poppy. And its color. A peachy-pink. Earlier this year I photographed a patch of poppies in a private Milwaukee garden and I’ve posted several of the finished photographs on this blog. I worked with composition in the first set of poppy photographs and I portrayed the flowers as one might see them in a garden setting.

With this photograph I also played with composition – half of the poppy isn’t even in the frame. I left it to everyone’s imagination to fill in the rest. We often need to only see a part to recognize the whole, and we know that this softly focused shape is, indeed, a flower.

The poppy is shown half hidden, focused in a soft haze. the main colors of the photo are complementary, colors that the human eye recognizes as working together, or harmonizing.

While I was subconsciously aware of these elements, I didn’t plan any of them. I did the photograph by feel, by experimentation. I wanted to capture the feel of the flowers, what I saw when I photographed them. No, I did not see this exact rendition of the poppy — partially hidden, softly focused. But I did capture how I “saw”this flower — the emotion of the flower, the experience of the flower.

I had difficulty when it came time to title this photograph. I got only as far as the obvious — Poppy. But I came to a quick stop when I tried to name the feeling that I had depicted in the poppy. Words, concepts, definitions — I had none.

Do you see the poppy and think of it in words or concepts, perhaps a description or an emotion? I would love to know if this poppy speaks to you. Share, if you wish, in the comments.

—————————-

Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.  Bo spent a thrillingly — is that a word? — exciting evening creating this poppy photograph. What a grand experience it was, the feeling of capturing in a photo what she saw when she saw the poppy in the garden.

Visions of Poppies Dance in My Head

Poppy - Tonal

Poppy – Tonal Contrast © 2011 Bo Mackison

I’m experimenting with my favorite flower from last spring – the pink poppy. I am slowly exploring a few post processing techniques. For several years I refused to try any pre-sets, instead choosing to do everything one step at a time. Every change in a photograph was a small change I chose. And I did many behind the scenes changes, but always with the intention of maintaining the look of original as I had visualized it.

Then I met Mike Moats at the Leeper Park Art Fair (South Bend) in June, and as we each looked at each other’s booth and art, Mike told me about the Nik software he is using almost exclusively for post processing. He invited me to attend a webcast he was giving on Using Nik Software.

I penciled the webcast in on my calendar, and then watched Mike demonstrate the Nik software, making tiny change after tiny change. The part that surprised me was that he often made the changes that I thought would be good changes to make. We were, if not the same wavelength, perhaps on neighboring wavelengths.

I was quite impressed with the software, and realized that the presets were only the jumping off stage — once you choose a preset, there are a million opportunities to individualize each photograph.

The above macro photo of the pink poppy did not have as much detail as I had hoped for at the focal point where the two rain-soaked petals overlap. I used the Nik preset called Tonal Contrast, and the raindrops suddenly popped off the screen. It provided a boost in the detail and I was able to get the abstract look I wanted.

So far, I’ve experimented with three different pre-sets on this poppy, plus many more on other photographs. I’ll post the original poppy plus the modified photos later this week.

————————-

Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She is experimenting with Nik software this month — exploring and testing and comparing, and having great fun with her photos.

 

Red Poppy

Poppy Macro-photograph

Red Poppy © 2010 Bo Mackison

Macro photograph of red poppy, taken at International Boundary Park on the British Columbia, Canada/Washington border.

Poppy Sunset

Abstract Macro of Poppy Flower

Poppy Sunset © 2010 Bo Mackison

Just before crossing the border from Washington state into British Columbia, Canada, we stopped fora short break at the International Border Park. The park had a small sculpture garden and quite a few beds of flowers including one with a huge stand of blooming poppies. I took a few photographs before getting back in the car and joining the stream of cars heading through customs.

Today I worked with several of the poppy images, including this macro shot of a poppy interior. When I desaturated the colors, the photograph of the poppy  reminded me of the sunset I had just watched through my studio window.