Sparkling Lake

Sparkling Devil's Lake

Sparkling Devil’s Lake © 2011 Bo Mackison

A lake is the landscape’s most beautiful and expressive feature. It is earth’s eye, looking into that by which the beholder measures the depths of his own nature.  ~ Henry David Thoreau

There are days where the clouds block the sun and the world takes on a somber mood. When the day is gray, it’s a good time to recall the brightness of the sunlight, shimmering on the lake. Sparkly bright, so bright I had to shade my eyes with my hand. I mostly photograph away from the direct light of the sun, but sometimes I like to capture the effects of the sunlight, especially when it dances on the waves.

I’ll hold tight these memories. Clouds may hide the sun, but nothing can take away that bit of sunshine I hold in my mind’s eye.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer, owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.  Bo loves the warmth and brightness of the sun; she is learning (slowly) to also love the gray clouds and cold winds of late autumn.

Red Maple and Early Morning Sun

Early Morning Sunlight on Red Maple

Red Maple and the Early Morning Sun

Turning toward the other side of light,
In a tower of wind, a tree idling in air,
Beyond my own echo,
Neither forward nor backward,
Unperplexed, in a place leading nowhere.

~ Theodore Roethke,  from “Journey to the Interior”

The last few mornings have been both ordinary and extra-ordinary.

This morning I was in my backyard watching the sunrise as I have done the past few days. The sun is hidden behind a large stand of trees, so I don’t see the sun as it peeks over the horizon. Instead I see the sun’s first light rays not in the sky, but as the light strikes the tops of trees  several blocks away from my home.

Then I wait about five minutes, and I am treated to one of nature’s finest gifts – and it takes place in my backyard.

I watch as the sun’s rays hit the very top of the red maple in my yard.

The maple has just begun to change colors, and the colors change from top to bottom. The maple reminds me of a giant green candle, and the candle’s flame? The red leaves flashing in the early morning sunlight.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She quickly pulled on a jacket and a warm hat to take photographs of the red maple in the early morning sun. Unfortunately, she went out wearing only socks on her feet, and had to come inside quickly because her feet were wet and cold.