Stretching our Spirits

Sitting in the Blues ©2012 Bo Mackison

Stay here – “sitting in the blues.” Allow emotion to turn everything into a statue, give fear and anxiety permission to darken the view.

Obstacles ©2012 Bo Mackison

Obstacles ©2012 Bo Mackison

Or…study the obstacles in the way. Consider strengths and skills. Make the decision to move forward, knowing that a stumble or a fall precedes standing again and moving forward.

River Passage ©2012 Bo Mackison

Passages © 2012 Bo Mackison

There are helpers on this journey. Find a flowing river with colorful guides to show the way.  Or a bridge to provide safe passage from here to there.

The Brightest World ©2012 Bo Mackison

There will be rough places to navigate, but the brightest wonders are sometimes found nearest the rustiest spots. Keep walking the path. The hardest of challenges grow our souls, stretch our spirits. Determined, we will find our way.

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Photos taken at Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison, Wisconsin.

Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.  Visit her Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/seededearthstudio

A Pinker Shade of Pale

Olbrich Autumn Wonders - A Pinker Shade of Pale

A Pinker Shade of Pale ©2012 Bo Mackison

There is a huge amount of freedom that comes to you when you take nothing personally. ~ Don Miguel Ruiz

Where I am now in my photography process?

I have embraced the freedom to create for myself first, to explore while processing and printing my photographs, to make decisions about my creative process based on what feels right to me. The bonus? The discovery that all this freedom opens the door to further exploration, taking bigger chances, stepping into challenges I once considered an impossibility. This is FREEDOM!

And then there is the challenge of printing photography portfolios.

I look around my studio. I look at the photographs I’ve chosen for the two portfolios I am currently printing. Who knew printing photography portfolios required such intense concentration, that it was such an exacting science? I learn as I do, and re-do. When I look at the finished printed photographs, the fine art photographic paper so thick and luscious, it feels like a high quality watercolor paper. I can scarcely believe these are of my creation. I love the prints.

They speak to me. For now, that is enough.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She is assembling two sets of her fine art photography in classic print portfolios. She will be attending the Filter Festival in Chicago the week of October 15. Workshops, lecture series, gallery walks, portfolio reviews. Wow!

 

 

 

Dahlia and the Gift of Wonder

Dahlia and Bud

Dahlia and Bud © 2012 Bo Mackison

Wonder is the heaviest element on the periodic table. Even a tiny fleck of it stops time. ~ Diane Ackerman

Have you ever been walking in a garden, or a woods, or a desert – anywhere, really, surrounded by the natural world – and suddenly stopped, unable to take another step until you took the time to absorb the many sensations of that exact place?

That sudden stop – it happens to me frequently. Even when I hurry myself along, reminding myself that I only have time for a twenty-minute walk, I am unable to push through, to ignore. I simply must stop.

To do what? Gaze with wonder at a flower, or the pattern and colors of bark on a tree, or the lapping of the waves of Lake Michigan, or the intricate web of a spider…

Wonder. Yes. For me, wonder is a definite time stopper.

What a gift that is – priceless – the ability to totally focus on one small part of the world, on one small part of nature. To see it, truly see it. The dahlia petals, each in place, each twisted into a slightly asymmetrical cone, each petal packed tighter as the rows get closer to the center.

And the pattern on each petal?  Not a single one the same. They are like a snowflake or a fingerprint – each one unique. So much to look at, to explore with my senses. I hold onto these memories for another time, when I am without a flower or a garden or perhaps without any time or place for a walk.

Wonder stops time for me. Does it stop time for you?

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. Bo has learned one thing from ‘walking with wonder’ – if she wants to walk for exercise she either needs to wear blinders, walk with a friend, or walk inside where she can ignore the distractions!

Dahlia, Oh Dahlia

Dahlia, Oh Dahlia

Dahlia, Oh Dahlia © 2012 Bo Mackison

It began in mystery, and it will end in mystery, but what a savage and beautiful country lies in between. ~ Diane Ackerman

Dahlias are my favorite flower to shoot. When I find a dahlia I love, I usually return a dozen times so I can capture the dahlia in its many stages, from bud to petals scattered on the garden earth. But when a dahlia I fall in love with is in a garden 200 miles from my home, I can’t visit over and over. The next best thing? Take an hour’s worth of photos in this patch of dahlias, every angle, in diffused light, in sun patches. Blowing in the breeze, and captured in a still air.

After I processed with photograph by de-saturating the colors, I could only look at the giant photo on my computer screen and think, “Dahlia, oh dahlia!” I’m in awe of this beautiful flower.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She is busy at work, finishing a few new photographs to bring to the Third Ward Art Festival in Milwaukee, Wisconsin this coming weekend. More info to follow.

Reflections of Water Lilies

Reflections of Water Lilies

Reflections of Water Lilies © 2012 Bo Mackison

No one can see their reflection in running water. 
It is only in still water that we can see. ~ Taoist proverb

Garden walk. Garden pond. Lily pads. Resting frogs. Quiet waters. Wispy reflections. Tall stems. Lilies flowering. Slight breeze. Rippling pond. Dancing reflections.

 

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.