October Day

Owen Park

source url October Day in Owen Park © 2011 Bo Mackison

source link Nature is a mirror held to our view so we can see the ongoing process of growth, renewal and transformation in our lives.  ~ Mary Ann Brussat

Buy Clonazepam Online Overnight What a show nature put on yesterday. I headed out for a 30 minute walk in Owen Conservation Park on Madison’s far west side, and ended up lingering on the paths for nearly three hours. (Totally tossed my to do list under the desk when I got home!)

https://bettierose.co.uk/146_bakercaralaurenceella/ Although I usually get questioning looks from hikers, baby back-packed parents, and some of the photographers I meet on the paths, I’ve finally learned that their curiosity and uncertainty about my photo methods have nothing to do with me. It is probably not something they would choose to do, and that’s fine.

https://thesentinelgroup.com/what-is-elmiron/ When I choose to lie in a thicket of low-growing sumac to see what the view looks like, I do it to satisfy my curiosity, to expand my vision. Often I choose to stay on the ground for a while, not always taking photos, often just taking in the space.

go site I like to ask myself a question or two. What can I see in a space one square foot? One cubic foot?

follow Then I look and answer. This can take a surprisingly long time.

https://www.52editions.com/notices/ People stop and ask what I am looking at. In this friendly Midwestern city, lots of park visitors start lengthy conversations with me, as if we were good friends chatting in a comfy coffee shop. I’ve learned to answer the questions, but not stop shooting. Or looking, if I am at the looking stage. And since I am typically sprawled on the earth, in an awkward position, I don’t get up to talk. It is much too difficult on my reluctant body–those frequent ups and downs–to add unnecessary round trips.

Order Lyrica Online Anyway, my answers are patently uninteresting, though honest.

watch “What are you looking at?”
“Red leaves, mostly.”
“Is there an animal in there?”
“No. Mostly leaves.”

Buy Soma Overnight Photographers who understand why I’m on my back on a bed of damp oak leaves, and why I have barely moved for the last twenty minutes, they don’t ask. They just nod and smile. Maybe they are looking for their own pile of damp leaves. Or maybe not. There are many kinds of photographers and no one way to photograph any subject is ever the only right way. Hopefully most of us shoot what is important to us as individuals, what provides inspiration, what makes us smile, laugh out loud, murmur “Oh, wow!” a dozen times an hour. Some of us even find a bit of soul nourishment while we click our shutters and study our spaces.

https://www.appliquecafeblog.com/tees/ The above photograph was not taken lying on the earth. It’s a simple composition showing off Wisconsin’s autumn season, a view to the north, taken near Owen Park’s ponds. With those clouds as a backdrop, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to share this landscape. But I’ll be posting a few of the “Shooting From A Bed of Mucky Leaves” soon.

Hydrocodone Purchase Online Enjoy the weekend. Have a look around, a real look. Maybe even choose a tiny piece of the earth, 12 inches square, and give that a close look.

https://www.jacobysaustin.com/menus/brunch/ What do you see?

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follow link Bo Mackison is a photographer, owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. Yesterday she spent half the workday outside in the brisk autumn air, so today she has to do yesterday’s and today’s computer work. And the sun is shining! Bummer!

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Touching the Sky

geese

Buy Ambien Online Overnight Geese © 2011 Bo Mackison

click Only from the heart can you touch the sky.  ~ Rumi

https://www.ztpackaging.com/cookie-bags/ I had the most remarkable and rewarding day yesterday. I spent much of the day outdoors, studying and working in the natural world.

see The day was sunny and the skies were a deeper blue than usual. There were two things that I repeatedly noticed throughout the day. First, the brilliant red maple in my backyard glowed like fire — yes, really, like fire — as the sunlight flickered throughout its deep oranges and reds. The maple is at its peak in color and I was aware that its fiery beauty would be fleeting, that the forecast for the rest of the week called for cloudy skies and rain. Yesterday was my day to pay attention to the red maple.

https://thesentinelgroup.com/roundup-lawsuit-update/ The other frequent visitors to my day were the wild Canada geese that flew over the house, oftentimes nearly skimming the tops of the trees.

I spent my day studying first the maple, deeply rooted, grounded, preparing for winter by slowing its metabolism, getting ready to drop its leaves, but that at the present moment it was in the height of its autumn beauty. Second, I watched the wild geese, preparing not to slow down for the winter, but instead instinctively working hard, readying themselves for a long flight south.

They were quite opposite in their approach to the coming colder weather, but both were still significant reminders of autumn.

While many people regard geese as nuisances, noisy and messy, their beauty in flight always thrills me, makes me stop and admire their grace, strength, and sense of community in formation. The geese remind me of the preparation required for the undertaking of a long journey, how they show perseverance to begin their journey, to reach their goal.

Yesterday was a good day for reflection on the present and for awakening the preparer in me. Not only are the geese going south for the winter, but I am also returning south for a part of the winter.

The geese, now in a perpetual state of preparation, remind me that I, too, must finish my work here so that I can prepare for my travels.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer, owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She has much to plan and prepare for — two art shows in mid-November, followed by a few weeks of travel in the Southwest, and perhaps a bit of adventure, too.

 

Three Tops at a Mic

Three Tops at a Mic

Three Tops at a Mic © 2011 Bo Mackison

I am imagination. I can see what the eyes cannot see. I can hear what the ears cannot hear. I can feel what the heart cannot feel. ~ Peter Nivio Zarlenga

Ever get carried away with your imagination as you look at the most ordinary of scenes?

This photograph of the prairie as it is breaking apart and shedding its finery in preparation for winter is straightforward. A few coneflower seed heads plus a stem in focus in the foreground, and more seed heads — out of focus — in the background.

And suddenly I no longer see the dying autumn prairie:

I see the “Three Tops,” a premier singing group in Prairie Land, at their microphone. Singing their hearts out as their fanatic audience sways to their rhythmic beat. Many in the audience are singing in their seats, but a few of the “Three Tops” most ardent fans are squealing and dancing at the bottom of the stage.

Hmm . . . Ursula Le Guin wrote, “I doubt that the imagination can be suppressed. If you truly eradicated it in a child, he would grow up to be an eggplant.”

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Bo Mackison is a photographer, owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She walks the prairie, thankful she did not grow up to be an eggplant.

Crabapples – A Tree with Many Gifts

Crabapples

 The Fruits of a Crabapple  © 2011 Bo Mackison

Crabapple trees are among my favorite to photograph, as many of the cultivars are visually interesting in all seasons.

Spring brings trees covered with tiny flower buds that open into photogenic flowers with great visual impact. Walking in an arboretum or driving down a city street, it is not unusual to see trees in white or various pink shades. In spring, crabapple trees look like bouquets of densely packed blossoms. Summer crabapples provide greenery and are favorite hiding places for a variety of birds.

In autumn, many of the trees have leaves that turn brilliant colors ranging from yellows to oranges to orange-reds. The trees bear fruits which also vary in color depending on the cultivar type. Fruits range from yellow-greens to yellows, oranges, purples, and as seen in the photo, a bright cherry red. In winter the delicate shape of the tree is a photographic delight, especially when the trees do not drop their fruits.

A crabapple is only a crabapple if its fruit is less than two inches in circumference.

If larger, then they are apples. And yes, a crabapple is edible, though you might not like its taste in its natural state. Even birds that supplement their diet with these fruits often wait until late winter when there is little else available in the wild.

But edibility is not much of a consideration to a photographer. I love the deep reds of the fruits, how they asymmetrically hang from the branches, how they glow in the late autumn sun.

The difficulty appears when there are so many fruit laden branches in a single tree, and I spend much time studying and looking deeply at a one tree. Come to think of it, that’s really not a difficulty at all, but a gift to practice deep seeing, a gift in mindfulness.

The crabapple — a tree with many gifts. One only has to look, and see.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer, owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.  She is deeply seeing as she studies the changing of the seasons.

Transitions

Transitions

Transitions © 2011 Bo Mackison

I love how this photograph so captures both the last bit of the growing season and nature’s preparation for winter.

Flowers and all their complicated, tiny parts hold a fascination for me, and add to my interest in photographing them. But there is something deep and grounding about the autumn trees and the annual dropping of their leaves, as they prepare to withstand a long winter.

Nature gives us so many lessons if we only pay attention.

Appreciate the beauty of each day, but also prepare for the coming days. I am pondering that it is often true — that less is more.

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Bo Mackison is the photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.  She is paying attention to nature and change, listening and watching.