Arbor on Adobe – November’s Photo-Heart Connection

December 5, 2012 by 16 Comments
Arbor on Adobe

Arbor on Adobe ©2012 Bo Mackison

Your task is not to seek love,
but merely to seek and find
all the barriers within yourself
that you have built against it. ~ Rumi

I love walls, I especially love abode walls. And I love adobe walls that have grape vines creeping all over most of all.There is just something about the combination of a wall with abode and grape vines that makes me grab my camera and check the space on my memory card.

I had an absorbing hour – yes, hour, thank you Sherpa for your patience – taking photographs of this particular adobe wall in Old Town Albuquerque. There were parts of the wall with cracks, parts of the wall with just a bit of the vine, some parts had clusters of blue grapes, some had leaves like this photograph. Together, they combine to tell a lovely story about the wall and the grape-vine.

I chose this as November’s Photo Heart Connection partly because it seemed so fitting for a photograph taken in November – the growing season is over and the vines are leaves are curling, crackling, falling off the vine. And partly because this was Day 3 of a four-day , cross-country trip, and we especially made time to visit Albuquerque instead of zooming through the city while bemoaning the fact that we didn’t have time to stop.

This photograph reminds me that time continues, seasons change, years pass. And if I don’t make time for pauses in a hectic life, make time to enjoy the sights and sounds of life, then I miss out on experiences that make my life meaningful. It pairs well with the above quote from Rumi. I can set up barriers that prevent me from fully partaking in life and love, or I can seek and find those barriers and take them down.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.  This is her November Photo-Heart Connection contribution.

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Dancing Leaves

August 16, 2012 by 3 Comments
Layers of Leaves

Layers of Leaves © 2012 Bo Mackison

“And see the peaceful trees extend
their myriad leaves in leisured dance—
they bear the weight of sky and cloud
upon the fountain of their veins.”
–   Kathleen Raine, Envoi

 

August Break 2012

 

Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She is taking an August break from writing long blog posts, but the garden walks and the photos continue. Bo photographed these gorgeous leaves at the Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison, Wisconsin.


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Hard Frost

November 4, 2011 by 2 Comments
Hard Frost

Hard Frost © 2011 Bo Mackison

Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.  ~ Henry David Thoreau

This morning it was middle-of-the-night dark when I started my day at 6:00 am. I had plenty of time to get ready for the day, make coffee, meditate, and as I finished, I noticed that the eastern sky was getting a faint glow. Gradually just a hint of pink appeared, growing lighter.

I checked the thermometer — 25˚ F. Cold enough for a heavy frost. When there was enough light to see outside, yes indeed, there was a very heavy frost. I waited until the sun peeked over the houses to the east of my backyard before I grabbed my camera and went out to see what I could see.

And what did I see? Frost, lots of frost. Fallen leaves covered with tiny crystals. The garden still had a few flowers, the last ones of the season, covered with a delicate icy coating.

I took enough photographs of frost and leaves for half the photographers in Madison, and then I played in the leaves for a while. No, I didn’t roll in the leaves or jump in a pile of leaves as I did when I was a child. But I did have lots of enthusiasm as I kicked through the deep maple leaves, then watched to see how high they flew. Who knew that kicking piles of leaves was such good aerobic exercise, too!

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Bo Mackison is a photographer, owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. Bo thinks everyone in the northern climes should do leaf kicking as an exercise for the next few weeks. So fun!

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Autumn Winds

October 18, 2011 by 3 Comments
Autumn Winds

Autumn Winds © 2013 Bo Mackison

“The leaves fall, the wind blows, and the country slowly changes from summer cottons into its winter wools.”
~ Henry Beston

It must have something to do with the middle of October.

Early autumn outdid itself with sunny days and mild, breezy nights. Then October reached its halfway point, and the skies turned dark, the clouds gathered in layers of grays.  Now the strong winds gust and swirl and the leaves either hang on tightly, or they whip off the branches and take flight before darting to the earth.

The first weeks of autumn were truly autumn.

But the last weeks of October have a wintry feel, and signal the approaching long chill.

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Bo Mackison is the photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.  She will take photos of autumn until there is no autumn left to photograph.

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Cool Colors in the Garden

August 31, 2011 by 6 Comments
Cool Blues and Greens

Cool Blues and Greens © 2011 Bo Mackison

Every gardener knows that it is the very impermanence of the garden that makes it precious.
The beauty of the garden lies in its constantly changing nature,
in the waves of colors and shapes that constantly pass through it.

~ Philip Martin

I have been to Olbrich Botanical Gardens on four different occasions to photograph these same Elephant Ear Plants. Twice I have photographed the gardens at 8 to 9 a.m. The other two times I visited the gardens later in the morning – about 10 a.m. til almost noon. Each time I have come away with markedly different photographs even though I am 1) using the same camera, lenses, and equipment including a tripod, 2)  shooting mostly in shaded areas or shot using light filtered through the plants — there has been an August bright sun with few clouds each time, and 3) I am shooting the same four or five plants.

Lighting is key in photography, and it is one of the joys and wonders I constantly work with. Light that is perfect one moment, disappears the next. As a photographer, one must seize the moment, there is no going back.

When I downloaded the photos to the computer from my last photoshoot, I was surprised to see such pronounced blue tones in the background plant. And even a few purple hues on a small part of the plant in the left lower area. The light green stem against the other deeper colors added the contrast needed to keep this from being a photograph of a bunch of foliage. And the added features of the patterns of lines and the plants’ textures are hard to beat.

A Zen sort of photograph, I can get lost in all those colors and textures.

Sure am having fun visiting these plants just about every day. Too bad they live on the other side of town!

Visit Through a Photographer’s Eye and see some remarkable photos in the photo of the week collection.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She is spending as many mornings as possible in the gardens. Prime garden time in Wisconsin and the gardens are full of treasures.

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