Sunflower Field in Polaroid

Sunflower - Polaroid

Sunflower Field in Polaroid © 2011 Bo Mackison

Same sunflower field that I posted yesterday, but this photo was post-processed using Nik Color Efex Pro 3™ and the Polaroid setting.

I can remember the first time I took a photo with a Polaroid Land Camera, circa 1969. A close up portrait of a newborn cousin.

The snap-snap-clicks, while the internal workings did whatever they did, then the count down until the hidden chemicals worked their magic, and out popped the photo.

The adults fussed, “Do be careful. Don’t touch the paper.” And we three cousins were grubby-handed and elbowing each other — ten, twelve, and fourteen-year-olds– pushing each other for the first look. Moments later, none of us would admit whose thumb print landed on the photograph, square on the baby’s face.

It wasn’t a pretty picture!

We denied our guilt repeatedly throughout the afternoon and evening, and begged our uncle, the one who never did have any kids, for just one more try. But he had whipped that Polaroid out of our hands, packed it back into its original cardboard box, and locked it in the trunk of his car, deaf to our protests and apologies.

This Polaroid manipulation was a bit time-consuming, but for sure, provided none of the angst of that first click I took forty years ago!

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She is practicing new post-processing techniques with the Nik Software. Might be one more sunflower photo in the works.

Partly Sunny, with Sunflowers

Sunflower Field

Partly Sunny, with Sunflowers © 2011 Bo Mackison

Another view of the Pope Farms sunflower field.

Photographed at Pope Farms Park, a city of Middleton park located five miles west of Madison, Wisconsin.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She has been working (playing) on the computer, practicing new post-processing techniques with the Nik Software. Still more sunflower photography to come — sunflowers like you’ve never seen in “real” life! Stay tuned!

Sunflower Fields, Forever

Sunflower Field and Rock Wall

Sunflower Field © 2011 Bo Mackison

Located five miles west of Madison, Pope Farms Park was farmland deeded to the city of Middleton in 1999 for a historical park and prairie restoration. A stone wall, dating from the early 1900s, separates a picnic area and the prairie from a huge sunflower field.

The park, in western Dane County, is on the eastern fringes of the Driftless Area, a large geological area.

Much of the Driftless Region is in southwestern Wisconsin, northeastern Iowa and southeastern Minnesota. The term “driftless” refers to the land which escaped the “drifting” of the last glacier — the Wisconsin Glacier — about 100,000 years ago. Deep valleys and high ridges are predominant, and there is no drift, or debris, which the retreating glacier deposited in other regions of Wisconsin.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She spent several hours wandering in the sunflower field. More sunflower photography is coming!

Waving to Autumn

Waving to Autumn

Waving to Autumn © 2011 Bo Mackison

Though we are still firmly entrenched in summer, and have the record heat waves across the country to prove it, signs of change are easy to find. This prairie, only a few weeks ago awash with myriad colors of flowers, is now gradually turning flowers to seeds. The muted colors of autumn slowly replace the brights and bolds of summer. Hot, still days turn warm and breezy.

I feel as though I am waving “hello” as autumn approaches.

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Seeded Earth Photography and my “Garden Gallery” are headed to Baraboo, Wisconsin tomorrow, Saturday, August 13, 2011, where we are participating in the Baraboo Art Classic. The art fair is located in downtown Baraboo, on the Sauk County Courthouse Square. Hours are 9 am to 4 pm.

If you are in the Wisconsin Dells/Baraboo area, stop and say hello!

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

Tall Grass Prairie

Tall Grass Prairie

Tall Grass Prairie © 2011 Bo Mackison

This isn’t the time of the year to be walking through a tall grass prairie. It is as dense as a thicket in a forest. Many of the prairie flowers bloom in July and August, some are already setting to seed. The Compass Plant, Indian Plantain, False Indigo, Orange Milkweed, Black Eyed Susans and Purple Coneflowers are some of the plants that will grow tall enough to make a hike through this area difficult. There are also four main grasses which grow in thick clumps — Little Bluestem, Big Bluestem, Indiangrass, and Switchgrass. It is not unusual to have many plants swaying three to six feet above your head.

This photograph was taken at Pope Farms Park, a natural area west of Madison, and this prairie is a restoration that was seeded about 5 years ago.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. Now that the prairies are thick with tall grasses and flowers, she spends a few minutes each day enjoying the sway of the tallgrass prairie plants.