A Pink Poppy Celebration

Pink Poppy

Pink Poppy © 2011 Bo Mackison

It was a sunny day, hot and windy. Mid-June in central Illinois.

The flowers in the back yard gardens were in high color–roses, gladioli, poppies. The shrubbery was white with tiny flowers–Bridal Wreath bushes. Fitting for the day. A wedding day.

I was the bride. Sherpa was the groom.

Thirty five years ago today.

Today we remember and reminisce. Today we give thanks and we celebrate.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. Today she is exploring old haunts in Milwaukee and celebrating with Sherpa.

 

 

 

 

Composition of Two Columbine

Two Columbine in Composition

Composition of Two Columbine © 2011 Bo Mackison

These sweet columbine were dancing in the wind and paused just long enough to let me take their portrait. We planted these plants the first spring we moved into this home – 25 years ago. Each year they seed and spread a bit more. The columbine is one of my favorite Wisconsin flowers.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. I did not schedule an art fair this coming weekend, but I’ll be at the Leeper Park Art Fair in South Bend, Indiana the weekend of June 18-19.

 

Three Irises

Purple Iris

Sun Drenched Purple Iris © 2011 Bo Mackison

Two irises popped open in my garden yesterday and I took the opportunity to take a few photographs before the weather turned drippy. (That would be drippy as in perspiration dripping from my face, and drenching my cotton shirt, not from rain clouds.)

After an hour in the gardens, I retreated inside to the cool recesses of my studio, and played with the iris photograph using Adobe Lightroom. I’ve experimented with a single photograph using three color levels. Though I typically do not increase the saturation in my photographs, I did increase the clarity and vibrancy in this first photograph to highlight the colors and contrasts.

I love the purple veining on this particular iris and wanted to emphasize it.

Iris in my Garden

Iris in my Garden © 2011 Bo Mackison

As a middle step, I decreased the saturation until there was minimal, but still definite coloring, in the flower. Again, I wanted to maintain the pattern of the veined sepals while lessening the impact of the bright colors.

Iris - Study in Black and White

Iris - Study in Black and White © 2011 Bo Mackison

I find working on black and white photos the most difficult and time-consuming, especially photographs of botanicals. Our minds expect flowers to be colorful and it is startling to see the color stripped away, and only the form of the flower and the light/dark values remaining.

This ended up being one of my favorites. I liked the light toned, complexly shaped iris against the contrast of the darker, vertical leaves.

This is the second set of threes I have done like this. The first set was a branch of dogwood blossoms. I will be showing them in sets of three at my upcoming art fairs. It’s always fun to hear the customer response to my experiments and the best way I know to see if the sets have curb appeal.

That is one of the reasons I love doing art fairs so much–you get immediate feedback on your art. No middle man. No anonymity of the web. Face to face discussions about photography.

I love that!

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. I didn’t schedule any art fairs for the coming weekend. Instead, I planned a special celebration for a personal milestone. More info coming.

 

‘Fanfare’ Blanket Flower

'Fanfare' Blanket Flower

'Fanfare' Blanket Flower © 2011 Bo Mackison

This blanket flower is the ultimate in red-hot summer flowers. The more common sunflower may look more like the sun, but this flower is more symbolic of how the sun actually makes me feel.

This is a ‘Fanfare’ Blanket Flower, a favorite of mine, and an easy flower for me to photograph as I grow it in my backyard perennial garden. Not only is it an easy plant to grow, it apparently is not a favorite of the critters that nightly munch on my garden. For that, it rates high on my list. It is also a long bloomer and will flower from now until the end of August.

I love this information on the flower tag. It reads “best choice for use in hot, dry spots where little else can grow.” Now that is my kind of flower. Hardy and tough. And beautiful, too!

This is a more standard photograph of this beauty. Yesterday’s photo featured the blanket flower depicting more mood than flower detail. This shot taken at ƒ/9.0 has enough depth of field to show the entire flower in focus.

I like both photographs — and each one serves a different purpose. Yesterday’s photo was more evocative, dreamy, an artistic rendering. I wanted to elicit the sensory feelings of a hot, steamy summer’s day. This one is more technical, and a better photograph for identification purposes, though I like its simple composition and mix of warm colors against the cool green foliage.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She spent the early morning enjoying her gardens – with and without her camera.

 

Summer Color

Summer Color

Summer Color © 2011 Bo Mackison

It’s summer!

Wisconsin went from damp, gray spring to sunny and in the nineties in ten days. The temperature outside feels just as hot and steamy as the flower looks — as if the heat is rising from its inner surface.

Sure, it’s an out of focus trick of the camera, an extremely shallow depth of field, but this photograph seemed to sum up this steamy, summery day better than the other, perfectly focused photographs.

Isn’t that a rather ironic name for this flower – the blanket flower! Just the thought of a warm blanket makes me head to the kitchen for a glass of ice water.

I’m smiling, though, with that glass of ice water in my hand!

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. Yesterday she removed the flannel sheets and three blankets from her bed and replaced them with cooling bamboo sheets!