Snowstorm in the Woods

Owen Park

Before the Storm © 2012 Bo Mackison

Each moment of the year has its own beauty. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

This morning when I began my day it was still night. Not quite. It looked like night, but it was early morning and the sun’s rising time has not yet caught up with my internal wake-up alarm.

The house was also awake. Pipes were humming-moaning-rumbling with flowing water and reminded me of the sounds of a storm which reminded me that there were predictions for a snowstorm today in our area. I peered outside into the almost dark. The remains of the perennial garden — stalks and seed heads — stood in silhouette against the open field beyond out land.

Bare ground, absent of snow from blizzards or ice storms or even ordinary snow storms, looked out of place in the middle weeks of January. The storm which was to have begun in the middle of the night had not yet appeared. I checked the Doppler radar, and smiled as I remembered waiting for weather forecasts on the radio as a teen.

“Five til the hour and five til the half hour” the jingle went, announcing times for the weather forecasts. It seemed an awkward way to give the schedule.

Now there is hardly any wait at all. The computer screen opens to a weather website and a United States map. It shows a eastward moving swath of royal blue the width of the state of Iowa. Royal blue is weather code for “big snow”. The storm is only twenty miles from Madison.

By the time I leave the house, snow is coming down in a blinding fury. By the time I’ve run a couple of errands and picked up extra milk, visibility is poor and the ground is covered with several inches of snow. I take a detour to Owen Park and then to Strickers Pond to take some winter photographs.

I fly to Tucson next week, so this may be my one of my only chances to tromp around in the snow and take pictures of the white stuff. Good thing I keep my extras of my winter outerwear in the car!

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She’s now admiring the snowstorm from inside her home, and she’s glad she doesn’t have to go back out and drive on the slippery streets.

 

October Day

Owen Park

October Day in Owen Park © 2011 Bo Mackison

Nature is a mirror held to our view so we can see the ongoing process of growth, renewal and transformation in our lives.  ~ Mary Ann Brussat

What a show nature put on yesterday. I headed out for a 30 minute walk in Owen Conservation Park on Madison’s far west side, and ended up lingering on the paths for nearly three hours. (Totally tossed my to do list under the desk when I got home!)

Although I usually get questioning looks from hikers, baby back-packed parents, and some of the photographers I meet on the paths, I’ve finally learned that their curiosity and uncertainty about my photo methods have nothing to do with me. It is probably not something they would choose to do, and that’s fine.

When I choose to lie in a thicket of low-growing sumac to see what the view looks like, I do it to satisfy my curiosity, to expand my vision. Often I choose to stay on the ground for a while, not always taking photos, often just taking in the space.

I like to ask myself a question or two. What can I see in a space one square foot? One cubic foot?

Then I look and answer. This can take a surprisingly long time.

People stop and ask what I am looking at. In this friendly Midwestern city, lots of park visitors start lengthy conversations with me, as if we were good friends chatting in a comfy coffee shop. I’ve learned to answer the questions, but not stop shooting. Or looking, if I am at the looking stage. And since I am typically sprawled on the earth, in an awkward position, I don’t get up to talk. It is much too difficult on my reluctant body–those frequent ups and downs–to add unnecessary round trips.

Anyway, my answers are patently uninteresting, though honest.

“What are you looking at?”
“Red leaves, mostly.”
“Is there an animal in there?”
“No. Mostly leaves.”

Photographers who understand why I’m on my back on a bed of damp oak leaves, and why I have barely moved for the last twenty minutes, they don’t ask. They just nod and smile. Maybe they are looking for their own pile of damp leaves. Or maybe not. There are many kinds of photographers and no one way to photograph any subject is ever the only right way. Hopefully most of us shoot what is important to us as individuals, what provides inspiration, what makes us smile, laugh out loud, murmur “Oh, wow!” a dozen times an hour. Some of us even find a bit of soul nourishment while we click our shutters and study our spaces.

The above photograph was not taken lying on the earth. It’s a simple composition showing off Wisconsin’s autumn season, a view to the north, taken near Owen Park’s ponds. With those clouds as a backdrop, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to share this landscape. But I’ll be posting a few of the “Shooting From A Bed of Mucky Leaves” soon.

Enjoy the weekend. Have a look around, a real look. Maybe even choose a tiny piece of the earth, 12 inches square, and give that a close look.

What do you see?

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Bo Mackison is a photographer, owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. Yesterday she spent half the workday outside in the brisk autumn air, so today she has to do yesterday’s and today’s computer work. And the sun is shining! Bummer!

Mist Shrouded Oak Savanna

Row of Oaks in Owen Conservation Park in Madison, Wisconsin

Mist Shrouded Oak Savanna

Moody. A contemplative space.

Black oaks, their looming figures stark against the swirling fog. Prairie grasses, nipped by frost, browned, brittle, curl at the feet of the giant trees.

An oak savanna.

“A savanna is generally defined as a plant community where trees are a component but where their density is ‘…so low that it allows grasses and other herbaceous vegetation to become the actual dominants of the community.'” (Curtis, The Vegetation of Wisconsin).

Photographed at Owen Conservation Park in Madison, Wisconsin.

A Walk in the Woods – Owen Conservation Park in Color

A Walk in the Woods © 2010 Bo Mackison

I think of this time of autumn — after most of the leaves have fallen, before the first snow falls — as a dull, colorless time of the year. This photograph proves me incorrect. Blue skies, a bit of yellow and green still on the bushes, and red fallen leaves mixed amongst the brown. Color all around. Just for the looking.

Photographed in Owen Conservation Park, Madison Wisconsin.

Frosted Seedhead – Morning in Owen Conservation Park

Seedheads with Bokeh at Owen Conservation Park in Madison, Wisconsin

Frosted Seedheads © 2010 Bo Mackison

Another photo from early morning in Wisconsin. Frost and mist give an extra bit of mood to a field of prairie flower seed heads.

Photographed at Owen Conservation Park in Madison, Wisconsin.