Essence of Place – White Sands in Chihuahuan Desert

White Sands National Monument, New Mexico

Purchase Tramadol Discount White Sands National Monument ©2013 Bo Mackison

White Sands National Monument in southern New Mexico is a desert within a desert.

https://osteopatiaamparoandres.com/85mh0cw The park is surrounded by the Chihuahuan Desert – a desert  of low scrub plants. This desert of white sand dunes has even less vegetation than the Chihuahuan Desert.

https://www.boasdeibiza.com/boat/buy-diazepam-wholesale.php Sherpa and I stopped at White Sands on our cross country trip from the Midwest to Tucson. Since I had a limited amount of time for photographs, I attempted to capture the essence of the park in a few select photographs.

click The above landscape photo shows a progression of dunes, each topped with low grasses and yucca. The dunes are spotted with plants that thrive in gypsum — the white sand is pure gypsum. Gyp moonpad and gyp nama are common.

Sund Dune

enter Sand Dune ©2014 Bo Mackison

This photo of the arch of a crescent shaped dune is a small part of the larger desert landscape.

Purchase Tramadol Cod This kind of landscape photograph is often called an intimate landscape, and is a technique pioneered by Eliot Porter. Typically there is little emphasis on the horizon, the lighting, or a long shot of a vista, but instead the focus is on pattern, texture and composition.

https://www.infotonicsmedia.com/about/valium-online-mastercard.php Intimate landscapes often have an abstract feel.

The ripples of sand drifts offered plenty of opportunity for a close up photo.

enter The texture of the fine sand is nearly visible, the texture of sugar. This isn’t a typical macro-photograph, but it does give a good indication of the movement paths of wind blown sand.

Photo Session in White Sands National Monument

enter Portrait Session in White Sands © 2014 Bo Mackison

A portrait in a landscape, or an unexpected detail in a landscape.

Tramadol Buying When I saw this photographer setting up his equipment for a portrait, I had to get a shot even though they were far away. It gives a different perspective of White Sands – the grasses in the foregorund, the gently rolling sand hills, and then the tiny figures on the horizon – a photographer adjusting his camera on a tripod, and his posing subject.

White Sands National Monument

here White Sands National Monument © 2014 Bo Mackison

White Sands National Monument attracts a fair number of sledders.

go to link The gift shop at the park headquarters even sells the round discs for sledding. So it seemed appropriate, as part of capturing the park’s overall feel, that I include a photograph of the visitors who came to the desert for a sled ride.

White Sands National Monument, New Mexico

Buy Diazepam Australia Rabbitbrush in White Sand © 2014 Bo Mackison

And a final photograph, a bit of the hardy vegetation that grows in one of the more hostile climates in the world.

https://bettierose.co.uk/3e4niaa5z Not many plants thrive with little rainfall, constant wind and creeping sands, drastic changes in temperatures of day and night, scorching sun and intense heat in the summer, and a soil that has minimal nutrients. The rabbitbrush and dune grasses are highly adapted plants that live where few plants can.

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Bookmaking in the Sonoran Desert – Featuring the Roadrunner

I’ll be doing a bookmaking project in 2014, featuring a different aspect of the Sonoran Desert each week.

Buy Diazepam Safely My first subject ran through the back arroyo as I was enjoying my sunrise coffee. A roadrunner would make a great feature for the first book, I thought, as I watched him ducking in and out of the brush. Then I decided, instead of traveling to the wide open spaces of the desert, I’d choose a subject from my backyard, the back arroyo.

go to link Not only would it make the study of a particular animal, plant or mineral convenient – my subject would always be available – but it would also encourage me to learn more about my backyard habitat. Perfect.

No Wonder, This Bird is a Cuckoo

https://www.pslra.org/ewsybsfc No Wonder The Bird is a Cuckoo © 2014 Bo Mackison

go site When the roadrunner visited, I took a couple of photographs, but mostly I just observed his behavior. I was amused at his rather peculiar antics — the bobbing of his crested head and the high jump he executed in the air, even the flip-flip of his tail as if he was telling me what he thought of my coffee drinking in his neighborhood!

see url I did some research on the roadrunner and made a simple accordion book. Then I added content. Even though I am not an illustrator, I plan to do simple drawings for these books. I’m not going to stress about this, figuring that as I practice it will get easier.

The writing was fun, especially since I uncovered so many interesting, and humorous, facts about the roadrunner’s habits. The first page of the book is an introduction and the sketch was on the next pages.

Most Famous of Sonoran Desert Birds

He skitters across the arroyo, shaking his shaggy crest,
Gives me a flip of his tail, no wonder. The bird is a cuckoo.

Two Poems in One

Two Poems in One © 2014 Bo Mackison

I wrote words and then added type cut from magazines to make two poems in one.

I decided to incorporate a second poem into the first by highlighting specific words. The first poem reads normally; in the second poem the read only the cut out words. This poem-inside-a-poem reads a little rough, since I didn’t think to add the second poem until  the words were already written in the book. I’m looking forward to planning a bit more in the next book.

Here is the first poem, read normally.

He has the habits of a slap stick comedian, a relative of acclaimed characters in Western tall tales & Saturday morning cartoons.
I’ve seen him do a helicopter dance, land with a bird in his beak. He’ll do combat with a rattler…and win.
And yet, Mr Cavalier, when courting, he presents his intended with a twig or blade of grass,
then the chase is on — ’til she decides yea or nay.
On cool desert mornings he spreads his tail feathers, exposes dark flesh,
& warms himself with the heat of the sun. An energy conservationist.

And here is the mini poem, composed in cut out words:

Sonoran Desert. No Wonder.
Come To the West & Dance…
and With A Yea!
Desert Warms the Sun.

Bookmaking - Accordion Book featuring Greater Roadrunner

Accordion Book Featuring Greater Roadrunner © 2014 Bo Mackison

See the agave plants in the corners and the sun symbols on the end covers?

One of my favorite parts was cutting out parts of the agave plant and adding them to the corners of the front and back inside covers. The endpapers remind me of a multitude of suns, appropriate for a book about the desert.

Now it’s time to go for an evening walk in the arroyo, and see if I can spot my next subject!

 

 

Renewal – A Desert Meditation

Opening

Renewal © 2013 Bo Mackison

“You are sand, wind, sun, and burning sky,
The hottest blue. You blow a breeze and brand
Your breath into my mouth. You reach—then bend
Your force, to break, blow, burn, and make me new.”

~ Benjamin Alire Sáenz, from “To the Desert” in Dark and Perfect Angels

Winter Speaks – A Slow Day, Take it Easy Day

Oak Leaves and Snow

Oak Leaves and Snow © 2013 Bo Mackison

The first full day of winter. It’s a winter speak day. Snow falls, softens the landscape, all mounds and drifting sculptures. Skeletal trunks poke from the showy hillocks. A few trees, the oaks, sport crinkly brown leaves, the accent color in all the white. Pastel blue skies peek from cloud cover. Even the streets and sidewalks have a glaze of glitter.

Winter speaks in hushed tones today, the snow muffles the sounds of bustling human activity. A slow down, take it easy day.

Limitless Vision

Orange Bumper

Orange Bumper © 2013 Bo Mackison

“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.” ~ go site Albert Einstein

It is a foggy day in Wisconsin, and when I peer out the windows I see only thick clouds hugging the earth. The streetlights are specks, the world is at a hush. As I paused at my window, taking a break from the last bits of my new website that still need writing, my mind wandered. I reflected on the many places I have traveled in 2013, and truly paused with awe as I recalled the wondrous sights held lovingly in my memory.

My most memorable visits were ones were I stood on the edge of two of the coasts – in early July I stood on the very edge of gritty shoreline, where the tip of Long Island extended far into the Atlantic. I was mesmerized with the waves, infinite. Six weeks later I stood on the shore near the Redwoods, coastal northern California, and watched, again, as the waves pummeled the black sands. This time I stared into the vast forever of the Pacific. And a month ago, I once again trekked to the Atlantic Coast, this time landing in North Carolina. I walked the beaches there, the sand cushioning every step. And again I stared into the vast waters, the seemingly never-ending ocean.

I have such fond memories of those hours looking into the spaciousness of the sea. Staring out into the ocean requires great imagination on my part. There is nothing but the relentless pounding surf, and yet an entire world exists in its depths. And as long as my feet are solidly upon the sandy earth, I feel a deep connection with that which I can only imagine.

In a couple of days – December 5th – I’ll be moving from Seeded Earth to my new website. It’s been in the making for nearly half the year as I gathered together my passions — my photography, book making, and writing, my love of nature and of travel — and gently wrapped them together into new offerings.

Every day is an opportunity for learning and exploring.
The new and mysterious are just beyond.
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