A Sea of Mystery

June 16, 2012 by 3 Comments
Pink Starlight

Pink and Orange Mystery © 2012 Bo Mackison

To create is to move into the unknown — to move into the mystery of yourself, to have feeling, to awaken buried perceptions, to be alive and free without worrying [what others think] about the results. ~ Michael Cassou

There is something about this garden plot of chives that brought forth my compulsion to change the humble purple orbs into a sea of pinks and oranges, waving blissfully with the tempo of the wind.

Chive flowers are such simply designed specimens of nature, and I take hundreds of photos of them.

What is it about chives? Their fringed edges? Their clumpiness — all squeezed together as if they are holding each other up? Their willingness to hold quite still, even with the wind about? Their slightly unkempt look, a bit tussled, a un-posed, natural look?

Some of my favorite photographs are ones I’ve taken of chives and then adapted so that the photo shows how I first saw the flowery fields. One of my clients’ all time favorites is also a row of chives, highly desaturated in post processing. People fall in love with the mood, the vintage look, and most have no idea they are praising the beauty of chive flowers.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. Yesterday, she played with her photographs and her computer all day. Bo thinks it a wonderful thing when she can refer to what she does as both work and play!

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Falling Flowers

June 14, 2012 by 6 Comments
Falling Flowers

Falling Flowers © 2012 Bo Mackison

Find out where joy resides and give it a voice far beyond singing. For to miss the joy is to miss all. ~ Robert Louis Stevenson

A visit to the New York Botanical Gardens in New York City brought some unexpected sights. A leaf filled glass ceiling that dropped ropes of orange flowers,  a flowering fall.

Photograph taken inside a Victorian-style conservatory, the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. Bo is recovering from her NYC trip, but she wanted to share one of her favorite sights seen on her trip.

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Lilies in Monet’s Garden

June 13, 2012 by 4 Comments
Lilies in Refection Pool

Lilies in Monet’s Garden © 2012 Bo Mackison

It’s on the strength of observation and reflection that one finds a way. So we must dig and delve unceasingly. ~ Claude Monet

The current exhibit at the New York Botanical Gardens is Monet’s Garden, located in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory on the grounds, truly a spectacular site for this themed exhibit.

NYBG’s website describes the exhibit as such — “Claude Monet was an avid gardener who once reflected that perhaps flowers were the reason he became a painter. This exhibition explores the legacy of his idyllic garden in Giverny, France, transforming the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory into a floral masterpiece of diverse plants, bold colors, and dramatic design . . . Monet’s most famous subjects, water lilies, many of them the varieties he grew, are featured in the Conservatory Courtyard Pools.”

The Enid A. Haupt Conservatory opened in 1902. This Victorian-style glasshouse is home to A World of Plant which is its permanent exhibit – a series of gardens that takes you on a tour of plants found around the world. After walking through the crowded Monet’s Garden exhibit – yes, our only chance to visit was on a Sunday afternoon! — we also walked through the permanent gardens.

I could have wandered through the many displays for days and days, but I only had a few hours, hours I was grateful for. Such an opportunity to fill the well of my senses –  fragrances, textures, colors. Ahhh.

I could not resist the challenge of taking photographs of a few of the lilies that are now in bloom in the courtyard pools. The reflection of the conservatory in the pools added an element of grandeur and a vintage look to the photographs of the water lilies.

The New York Botanical Gardens, including its many historical structures, is a National Historic Landmark.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She spent a glorious afternoon visiting and photographing the New York Botanical Gardens, and highly recommends a garden visit if you are in the New York area.

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The Sidewalk Heart

June 12, 2012 by 6 Comments
It's the Maple Seed

Maple Seed in a Sidewalk Heart © 2012 Bo Mackison

What a happy and holy fashion it is that those who love one another should rest on the same pillow.  ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne

This is a photograph of a metaphor for marriage.

See the pretty heart? It was carved out of a part of the pavement on a city sidewalk in Chicago. That seems appropriate. Sherpa and I met on a city street, in Chicago, almost 39 years ago. A stylized heart, such as this one, is a symbol of love, though I always wondered how this shape came to be.

See how the heart is roughly carved? A few hacks and rough spots. Some gouges and uneven outlines. Sounds like most marriages I know. Yes, even the ones that last and last and last. There are gouges and rough spots, but there are a lot more smoothed areas.

See how some dirt has collected in the creases, in a few of the gouges? How there is a smattering of grit and grime around the heart? Well, even in a good marriage, there is great deal of day-to-day clean-up that is required. Most of the grit gets swept away, a bit remains. That’s OK. Marriage is a committed relationship between two imperfect people. No marriage is perfect. But this particular marriage I am writing about has had some perfect moments, some great, and a lot of good enough.

See the maple seed? It’s a bit bedraggled, a bit dirtied by street traffic, but it’s all in one piece. If you planted the twirly seed, there’s a good chance it would grow into a little tree. And the seed has two parts connected, but still each wing has its own seed. In a lasting marriage, there are together times and separate times. Good recipe for keeping a marriage alive.

So maybe I am stretching the maple seed metaphor a bit. But that’s OK, too. When I saw the heart and the seed on the sidewalk a couple of weeks ago, I immediately took a photograph with the intention of writing about it and posting it today, June 12th, 2012, in honor of the 36th anniversary of the wedding of Sherpa and Bo.

Happy Anniversary, Sherpa.

(It ain’t just anyone who gets a bedraggled maple seed in a sidewalk heart photograph for their anniversary!)

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.  She is taking tonight off – no camera! – and celebrating. Dinner for two in NYC!

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Orchid in Profile

June 7, 2012 by 2 Comments
Orchid in Profile

Orchid in Profile © 2012 Bo Mackison

Observe the wonders as they occur around you. Do not claim them. Feel the artistry moving through and be silent. ~ Rumi

This is an indeed an excellent day to simply observe the world around me, notice the artistry in nature, and be silent. Some days it is wise to be the observer, not the speaker.

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

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