Pink Coneflower ©2105 Bo Mackison
Creating the flower mandalas has evolved into a daily “slow” practice for me. The ritual of walking through one of the city’s gardens, choosing which flower to photograph, and creating the image so it captures the essence of the flower as I see it.
Such joy for me. And, so grateful that I can share these mandalas and offer this joy to my friends.
Coneflower, Unfolding © 2014 Bo Mackison
“There is something perfect to be found in the imperfect: the law keeps balance through the juxtaposition of beauty, which gains perfection through nurtured imperfection.” ~ Dejan Stojanovic
There was a time, a time spanning many years, when I would have processed this photo in a way so that the wrinkled, brown area on the front petal would have been invisible. Or I would have searched for that one flower that already looked perfect, and photographed that one.
We look at a perfectly formed flower and marvel at its beauty, admire the face of a model made perfect in the post processing stage, choose the perfect landscape perspective that hides the telephone pole.
Today I choose to photograph the flower with its imperfection. To see the whole. To study the lovely curling petals on the verge of opening. To marvel at the juxtaposition of the orange and the pink.
This does not imply that I did no post processing – I did. I softened the background, added a vignette to emphasize the flower. Played with the photo until I liked the artistic interpretation AND I chose to show the flower as it is – perfect in its imperfection.
Coneflower, Emerging ©2013 Bo Mackison
“To see the world in a grain of sand, and to see heaven in a wild flower, hold infinity in the palm of your hands, and eternity in an hour.” ~ William Blake
And here
is the flower
not yet unfurled
petals not yet drooping
on the edge of a breeze
like the flutter of a heartbeat
a spark emerges from the depths
and disappears in the heated haze
on a sun-drenched July morn.
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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. Her exhibit, Garden Party – A Celebration of Botanical Photography, is at the Alicia Ashman Branch Library Gallery in Madison, Wisconsin and runs through September 5, 2013.
Coneflower Seedhead © 2011 Bo Mackison
The creative process, like a spiritual journey, is intuitive, non-linear and experiential. It points us toward our essential nature, which is a reflection of the boundless creativity of the universe. ~ John Daido Loori, from The Zen of Creativity
Though there were many years in my life when I seldom saw a sunrise, I seem to be making up for all those lost sunrises because I try not to miss the day’s beginning if the weather cooperates. I can think of no better way to begin each day by waking in darkness, puttering around the house while pulling on the right layers of clothing, and heading outdoors just as the sky begins to lighten.
Usually I grab my ready-to-go camera which I always set the prior evening for early morning photos. I participate in a nightly ritual by preparing my camera and gear for the next day — clean the lenses and filters, check the battery and memory card, format the camera if needed, check the white balance and other settings.
When I take my time in the evening, there are no hurried morning exits while I search menus and spin dials on my camera.
I like to take my mornings slow, wander in the yard, no agenda, no particular photograph in mind, just a time for the awakening sounds of nature and keen observation of what is going on around me.
I recall the first lines in the poem The Waking by T.S. Eliot. I say these lines most mornings while I stand in the leaf covered grass, grounding myself, waiting, watching, a morning prayer of a different sort:
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
I learn by going where I have to go.
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Bo Mackison is a photographer, owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She also loves the early morning, sunrises, and poetry.
