The Sun Rises ©2012 Bo Mackison
“You don’t need somebody to interpret for you what a beautiful sunrise it is.” ~ Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh
Owen Park Fence at Sunrise
What is the good of your stars and trees, your sunrise and the wind, if they do not enter into our daily lives?
E. M. Forster
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Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. Winter clouds, snow and the sunrise – a combination worth getting up early to capture.
Oak Tree ©2012 Bo Mackison
In creating, the only hard thing is to begin: a grass blade’s no easier to make than an oak. ~ James Russell Lowell
I returned from a photography conference a week ago. The conference was all that I had expected, and more. The workshops were on presentation techniques and the creation of fine art pieces. There was a printing symposium and narratives from photographers who set their focus on long-term creative goals and who, after years of planning and work, realized completed art. There were gallery walks, visiting photography galleries in the Loop. And a visit to the Museum of Contemporary Photography – cutting edge works of photographic based art.
I came home with my head filled with new ideas, new techniques, and a view of a world I had barely known existed. During my first week back home, I thought about the workshops, re-copied some of my illegible notes, checked out websites and blogs from several recommended lists from various workshop leaders. I began to dream of big projects, new paths to follow, finished photography projects that were all shiny and new and so promising.
Then, the everyday world crept back in. There were house shoots to schedule for a bread and breakfast company I do contract work for. There was an art festival to get ready for – check inventory, make out orders for frame parts and glass, print some of my newer photographs for framing. There was Hurricane Sandy to keep an eye on, keeping a long distance watch on my people on the East Coast and inland.
And those dreams that were so vivid and exciting became less so in the responsibilities of the every day.
Except. I am not going to relegate the thrill of the new to a week of living it, and then a week of dreaming about it. If I want to keep the new ideas awake in my head, if I want to try some new creative techniques, if I want to start a long-term project with a completion date, then I need to schedule time on a consistent basis.
And what is this time for? It is time to consider, investigate, dream. To experiment, study, make mistakes, and do again. To live and work on my dream while doing the everyday thing, too.
I have dreams. The dreams are re-forming into goals with baby steps. The baby steps will turn into big steps, and occasional leaps. I have scheduled time into my daily calendar.
This is the time to say yes to big ideas, new ideas, and see where they lead…
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Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She is holding tightly onto new dreams and hopes and goals, while wondering how far she can go…
“Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.” ~ George Eliot
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Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.
Let’s Take an Autumn Walk ©2012 Bo Mackison
One of the urban parks in Madison, Wisconsin – Owen Conservation Park – has a maze of hiking trails. There are dozens of paths, views of the city, prairie remnants, trails through hardwood forests, and a small pond for water fowl. The park seems specially designed for a colorful hike in autumn.
View Across the Prairie ©2012 Bo Mackison
Prairie view. Most of the golden-rods and asters – the last blooms in autumn – have now gone to seed. The prairie is filled with fluffs of white blowing seeds.
Autumn Colors in the Woods ©2012 Bo Mackison
The forests, though small, have a fine variety of hardwoods. Maples, oaks, hickory are the predominant species, and together produce a fine color mix of yellows, oranges, reds and browns.
Leafy Shadows in Autumn ©2012 Bo Mackison
I love to hike when the sun is still low enough in the morning to cast leafy shadows on the tree trunks in the more open spaces.
Reds and Yellows in Autumn ©2012 Bo Mackison
Sumacs give the park’s open spaces a deep red glow. More whites in the prairie — fluffy seeds. Yellow ashes still have some of their leaves.
Autumn Walk in the Forest ©2012 Bo Mackison
Another path through the woods and I’m back to the parking area.
Owen Park Road ©2012 Bo Mackison
Even while leaving the park, there are so many trees in bright colors. I pulled along the side of the road a half-dozen times for that “one last shot.”
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Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. Thankful for the opportunity for a nature walk today.
She is attending the Filter Festival in Chicago the week of October 15. Workshops, lecture series, gallery walks, portfolio reviews, and much more. But no opportunities for walks in the autumn woods.
Beginning of a Snowstorm © 2012 Bo Mackison
Reading about nature is fine, but if a person walks in the woods and listens carefully he can learn even more. ~ George Washington Carver
The snow predictions were right on target. Yesterday morning at this time it had just begun to snow. Now there are six inches of snow covering the ground. I went out early yesterday, about an hour after the storm whipped into Madison. In the thick of this hardwood grove, there was the silence of nature. Nothing much to hear, unless I stopped and stood still. And listened. And waited.
The snow pelted the ground without sound, but vibrated the pile of oak leaves still attached to their branch. I heard what sounded like the breath of the wind blowing gently, the tremble of a leaf as the snow fell heavier. A single snowflake would not disturb a single oak leaf, but a swirl of snowflakes makes the branch of leaves dance.
The birds were silent. The wild turkeys, always a noisy crew, were strutting through another part of the park. No coyotes were out, not in mid-day. I hear them mostly at night, a siren-mimicking whine that always make me listen twice. Am I listening to the warning of a siren or the wailing of the coyotes? Even the squirrels had deserted this area.
My world is often silenced by the fall of snow, it blots out the sounds of man, and requires me to listen carefully to the sounds of the natural world around me.
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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. Bo is exploring winter – close up and quietly.
