Great Horned Owlets

Great Horned Owls

Great Horned Owls © 2013 Bo Mackison

It’s note-worthy when golfers stop their game long enough to stare into the high boughs of a nearby cottonwood. Not that they watched for long, but I watched foursome after foursome check out the tree top as they queued for their tee-time. (I had been given a hint as to the owls’ whereabouts by a dear neighbor who knows my penchant for photography.) Lucky for me, I knew where to look!

What a thrill! Two Great Horned Owlets, not quite ready to fledge their nest. They kept their backs towards me and their feathers over their heads as I aimed my long lens towards their nest, but when Sherpa made a sort of screeching sound, they popped up and kept a steady eye on that screeching human on the ground. Plenty of time for me to take a few baby portraits.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.  She explores Arizona with her camera, aided by neighbors’ helpful hints and Sherpa’s noise-making abilities.

All Manner of Stripes

Stripes on Benches

Stripes on Benches ©2013 Bo Mackison

“In photography there are no shadows that cannot be illuminated. ” ~ August Sander

While visiting Casa Grande National Monument, I found plenty of opportunity to play with surfaces striped with light and shadow. And so that is what I did. I played!

Stripes in Corners

Stripes in Corners © 2013 Bo Mackison

Photography means ‘light writing’.~ L. Ron Hubbard 

I took these photos at the visitor center and the outside ramada where Park Rangers give talks about the ancient ruins of a Hohokam-era farming village and a four-story Great House.

Stripes on Roofs

Stripes on Roofs © 2013 Bo Mackison

The camera captures light, our minds capture images. ~ Anonymous

Blue skies, an Arizona hallmark, show through the slatted ramada.

Stripes - Casa Grande National Monument's Visitor Center

Stripes – Casa Grande National Monument ©2013 Bo Mackison

Photos have no narrative content. They only describe light on surface. ~ Garry Winogrand

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.  She explores the desert with her camera, and is mesmerized by the stripes of light and shadow.

The Essence of Desert

Yucca in Bloom

Yucca in Bloom ©2013 Bo Mackison

“I seek out places where it can happen more readily, such as deserts or mountains or solitary areas, or by myself with a seashell, and while I’m there get into states of mind where I’m more open than usual. I’m waiting, I’m listening. I go to those places and get myself ready through meditation. Through being quiet and willing to wait, I can begin to see the inner man and the essence of the subject in front of me… Watching the way the current moves a blade of grass – sometimes I’ve seen that happen and it has just turned me inside out.”
~ Minor White

There is a transformation that takes place when I sit in a place of solitude and wait.

In the 1930s, the Civilian Conservation Corps did construction projects in the Sonoran Desert. They built several picnic areas in the Tucson Mountains, tables of concrete and stone, each in a private space, each table protected from the heat of mid-day sun by an overhead ramada. One of these picnic sites, tucked far from the road, has become my perfect office space. I gather the requisites necessary for spending a day writing and taking photographs in the desert – camera, a few reference books, my old notebooks, but also water, protein snacks, a wide-brimmed hat, sunscreen, my hiking stick.

I bring my writing office to the desert. I choose not to bring my computer or other devices that might tempt me with an immediate, continuous connection to the rest of the world. I choose  solitude instead. I write by hand, pen to paper, scribbling, crossing out, adding words, sensing the connection between brain and hand. I compile notes from a dozen notebooks, unravel bits of my life from words written during the past decade. I pull inspiration from these worn pages and curate them into the skeletal beginnings of my Desert Wisdom Cards.

I take frequent breaks to hike – a favorite trail begins fifty paces from my table and winds through saguaro-studded desert, in and out of several washes, then half-way up the side of Brown Mountain. There I stop and memorize the desert scene, burn its landscape into my mind – again. In a few weeks I will be in a far away state, and my heart will linger here in this lush desert stretching beyond the beyond.

Minor White’s quote struck a deep chord in me. I do connect with the world beyond my sight, I feel the essence of place seep into my cells. Sometimes I feel as if this sacred desert space turns me inside out, and exposes my innermost being to the desert in exchange for bits of desert wisdom.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.  She is beginning a time of transition, and finding strength and inspiration in the desert. Her office, at least for a few more weeks, is in the Sonoran Desert.

Desert Bloom

Claret Cup Bloom

Claret Cup Bloom © 2013 Bo Mackison

When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world. ~ John Muir

The claret cup hedgehog cactus has one of my favorite early blooms – a deep orange cup that attracts hummingbirds as pollinators. Every time I see the claret cup in bloom, with a hummer dances at its edges, I laugh in delight.

It is the only cactus in Arizona pollinated by hummingbirds. The hummingbirds stick their entire heads into the cup to get a drink of nectar, and get their heads dusted with yellow pollen for their efforts. I love to see the hummers with foreheads of pecks of pollen after they’ve gotten their fill from a few claret cups.

Unlike many cacti whose blossoms close in the evening and last only a day or two, the claret cup flowers stay open day and night and can last three to five days. It’s a cactus that isn’t stingy with its beauty.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.  She continues to discover beauty and inspiration while exploring the Sonoran Desert.

Blooming Desert

Sonoran Desert, Saguaro National Park

Sonoran Desert, Saguaro National Park © 2013 Bo Mackison

Full many a flower is born to blush unseen and waste its sweetness on the desert air. ~ Paul Hoffman