Fog Across the Water

Redwood National Park -- From West Entrance to Pacific Coast

Crashing Waves ©2013 Bo Mackison

One day many years ago a man walked along and stood in the sound of the ocean on a cold sunless shore and said, “We need a voice to call across the water, to warn ships; I’ll make one. I’ll make a voice like all of time and all of the fog that ever was; I’ll make a voice that is like an empty bed beside you all night long, and like an empty house when you open the door, and like trees in autumn with no leaves. A sound like the birds flying south, crying, and a sound like November wind and the sea on the hard, cold shore. I’ll make a sound that’s so alone that no one can miss it, that whoever hears it will weep in their souls, and hearths will seem warmer, and being inside will seem better to all who hear it in the distant towns. I’ll make me a sound and an apparatus and they’ll call it a Fog Horn and whoever hears it will know the sadness of eternity and the briefness of life.
~ Ray Bradbury, The Fog Horn

This is the Pacific in fog.
It was cold when I walked the shore.
The waves were menacing, thrashing about.

A sign on the beach warned of sneaker waves
and the death toll tallied, victims unaware of the power of surf.
There was nothing to see in the beyond.

Fog settled low. I stood
watching the shore birds fight over specks of dinner.

The ranger at Redwoods shrugged when I said
I liked the feel of the fog, like a shroud.

“It’s always like this. Might be clearer than usual.
Never see sunlight on this beach.
Come back, the fog will be here.”

Tide was rolling in, and the motel was 50 miles south.
I decided there’d be tomorrow for more fog watching.

The next morning the skies were a startling deep blue.

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Bo Mackison is photographer, book-maker, collector of stories, naturalist, and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.  In August, I stood on the shore of the Pacific Ocean.

Endless Waves

Endless Waves

Endless Waves © 2013 Bo Mackison

“You never really know what’s coming. A small wave, or maybe a big one. All you can really do is hope that when it comes, you can surf over it, instead of drown in its monstrosity.” ~ Alysha Speer 

The view spreads beyond, endless.
Faraway, a blue thread separates water from air.

Waves constant, but ever changing.
Waves ever changing, but constant.

The thread so easily binds; the thread is so easily cut.
And still the waves sweep the shore
ever constant, ever changing.

We walk the ever shifting sands.
In stillness we stand grounded.

The beauty holds our gaze.
Ever constant, ever changing.
The beauty holds us dearly.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She reconnected with some of her most beloved people this past weekend, and fell in love with the endless ocean landscape.

Journey to the Edge

Lake Michigan and Shore Grasses - at Sunrise

Lake Michigan and Shore Grasses – at Sunrise ©2012 Bo Mackison

We do not receive wisdom,
we must discover it for ourselves,
after a journey through the wilderness
which no one else can make for us,
which no one can spare us,
for our wisdom is the point of view
from which we come at last to regard the world.

Marcel Proust

 On a recent trip to Door County, I set my alarm for an hour before sunrise. Each time I visit, I make a point to cross the narrow peninsula, from my bay side motel to one of the lake side beaches or harbors, and set up my sunrise camp. There I am afforded an unobstructed view of sunrise, only Lake Michigan to my east and the hint of a dawn soon to come.

I love watching as the sun pops up from the horizon. I love the darkness turning to daylight. I love the feeling of being on the very edge of a new day, on the edge of the earth between earth and water, on the edge of the beach between sandy shore and lush beach vegetation. I love taking photographs with the scene bathed in the golden glow of early morning light. I don’t much care for taking photos of the actual sunrise (or sunset for that matter) but I do love turning my camera away from that giant source of light, and shooting in the opposite direction.

In this case, I was standing on a sandy stretch of beach near the Ridges Sanctuary, and nearby was a stretch of sand filled with a dense growth of beach grasses. I was positioned just north of Bailey’s Harbor (the water) and so a bit of Lake Michigan and Bailey’s Harbor (the village) are in the background.

It was a bit of a journey through wilderness to another discovery of wonder.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.  She is busy with packing notes and to do lists. She is traveling to Milwaukee, Wisconsin to exhibit her photography at the Third Ward Art Festival  this weekend.