Ms. Pumpkin

Happy Halloween

Ms. Pumpkin ©2012 Bo Mackison

Ms. Pumpkin wishes all of you a safe and Happy Halloween.

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

The Mighty Oak

Owen Park

Oak Tree ©2012 Bo Mackison

In creating, the only hard thing is to begin: a grass blade’s no easier to make than an oak. ~ James Russell Lowell

I returned from a photography conference a week ago. The conference was all that I had expected, and more. The workshops were on presentation techniques and the creation of fine art pieces. There was a printing symposium and narratives from photographers who set their focus on long-term creative goals and who, after years of planning and work, realized completed art. There were gallery walks, visiting photography galleries in the Loop. And a visit to the Museum of Contemporary Photography – cutting edge works of photographic based art.

I came home with my head filled with new ideas, new techniques, and a view of a world I had barely known existed. During my first week back home, I thought about the workshops, re-copied some of my illegible notes, checked out websites and blogs from several recommended lists from various workshop leaders. I began to dream of big projects, new paths to follow, finished photography projects that were all shiny and new and so promising.

Then, the everyday world crept back in. There were house shoots to schedule for a bread and breakfast company I do contract work for. There was an art festival to get ready for – check inventory, make out orders for frame parts and glass, print some of my newer photographs for framing. There was Hurricane Sandy to keep an eye on, keeping a long distance watch on my people on the East Coast and inland.

And those dreams that were so vivid and exciting became less so in the responsibilities of the every day.

Except. I am not going to relegate the thrill of the new to a week of living it, and then a week of dreaming about it. If I want to keep the new ideas awake in my head, if I want to try some new creative techniques, if I want to start a long-term project with a completion date, then I need to schedule time on a consistent basis.

And what is this time for? It is time to consider, investigate, dream. To experiment, study, make mistakes, and do again. To live and work on my dream while doing the everyday thing, too.

I have dreams. The dreams are re-forming into goals with baby steps. The baby steps will turn into big steps, and occasional leaps. I have scheduled time into my daily calendar.

This is the time to say yes to big ideas, new ideas, and see where they lead…

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She is holding tightly onto new dreams and hopes and goals, while wondering how far she can go…

Under The Bean

Under the Bean

Under the Bean ©2012 Bo Mackison

The artist can truly understand surface forms only by knowing their underlying structures; their form and behavior under tension, stress, and activity. In a sense, the why of what is. – Ian Mack

This quote seems to be written for this wonderful piece of sculpture, Cloud Gate by Anish Kapoor. This is an amazing piece of sculpture, and one where the design required not only knowledge of the internal tensions and stresses of the structure and its form.

I keep imagining that there are just as many behaviors under tension, stress and activity in the exterior space surrounding The Bean.

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

She recently returned from a week at the Filter Photo Festival in Chicago. A week filled with workshops, lectures, gallery walks, portfolio reviews, and a photo-walk to Millennium Park to say hello to The Bean.

The Bliss of Falling Leaves

Falling Leaves

Falling Leaves ©2012 Bo Mackison

Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering to the ground. ~ Emily Bronte

Falling Leaves

This has been a wonderfully bright and colorful autumn. The trees held tightly to their leaves longer than usual, giving me plenty of opportunity and  time to photograph autumn color before all of the falling leaves left only bare branches.

I have always had a special affinity with autumn, loving the trees and their layers of colors, loving the crisp, cool evenings in fall after a summer of sticky, humid nights, even loving the annual raking event we always had on a weekend in late October.

Blog Anniversary Winner

I celebrated the 5th anniversary of Seeded Earth Studio’s blog a few days ago, and offered a give away, a photograph, to one of my blog visitors who left a comment on the blog birthday post.  I said I would pick and announce the winner on my birthday, and so the day has come. There were 20 comments. I used a random number generator from the internet to choose a number.

And that number is: #10.

Counting the comments, the winner is #10 — ta-da — Susan Vial.

Congratulations, Susan. I’ll be contacting you very soon, as soon as I return from my Chicago Adventure! Sweet!

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.  She is attending the Filter Photo Festival in Chicago the week of October 15.  Bo will be blogging about her conference experience – workshops, lecture series, gallery walks, portfolio reviews, and much more. 🙂

Blue Skies, Yellow Trees

Autumn Trail ©2012 Bo Mackison

“Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.” ~ George Eliot

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