Red Flower, Many Layers

Layers of Petals

Red Flower Wearing Her Layers © 2012

While there is perhaps a province in which the photograph can tell us nothing more than what we can see with our open eyes, there is another in which it proves to us how little our eyes permit us to see. ~ Dorothea Lange

The simple zinnia provides an interesting study of the pattern of petals. It reminds me of a velvety red circular staircase. (Maybe a staircase to heaven?)

Oops, my mind headed in a different direction with the vision of  Stairway to Heaven. How can you ignore the strains of one of the best songs ever, Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin. (And yes, I saw them in concert in 1975, second from the top row in the Chicago Stadium, However the YouTube clip is from a concert at Madison Square Gardens!)  I love the Zep enough to conquer any fear of heights or claustrophobia I may have had, and sat mesmerized through their sets.

Any other Led Zep fans out there? Especially from years of youth in the 1970s?

Isn’t it amazing how a simple red flower can send you on a trip through your memories?

————–

Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC  .She went on a trip down memory lane, all because of a photograph of the petal structure of a zinnia.

Tiny Fountain

Fountain at Chicago Botanic Gardens

Tiny Fountain © 2010 Bo Mackison

This fountain is in a very long straight line, but the individual water spouts are very short – only a few inches high.

Did you see the fountain in the photograph when you first glanced? As you looked for the fountain, did that encourage you to look deeper into the photograph?

That is what photography – the actual act of taking a photograph – does for me. It makes me take a longer look, a deeper look. It allows me take the time to make meaning from what I see.

Photographed at Chicago Botanic Garden.

Green Places – Exploring Bolz Conservatory in Olbrich Botanica Gardens

Green is Beautiful

Green is Beautiful

The sun is shining, the snow is melting. I always think of mid-March as the teaser. Sunny days, almost touching the 50˚F mark. The a dip back into the teens or 20s and frosty again. There are bits of my yard where there are peeks of grass, though much of the yard is under 6 or more inches of crusty snow. But it’s melting. Yes, it truly will be Spring soon.

I still have to find my green in the Bolz Tropical Conservatory, but I’m practicing for when those first bits of green shoots pop out of the earth. Ahhhhhhh!