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Seeded Earth Studio bio picture

Bio






My grandmother gave me a Brownie camera when I was eight
years old, then proudly showed my photographs of her flowers to her Garden
Society. The joy I felt as a young child while taking photographs for others to
enjoy remains today, and it is this passion that keeps me immersed in
photography.


My husband and I moved to Wisconsin in the mid-1970s and,
on impulse, I borrowed a Pentax K-1000 to take my first photography course. I
later attended the Madison Area Technical College and Edgewood University in Madison
where I took both art and photography classes.


In 2007, I received a digital camera as a gift and the door
to photography opened wider than ever. My world shifted as I saw the
possibilities that could be created using a camera and lenses — infinite possibilities
to document the natural world, architecture, history, seeing everything with a
new perspective.


"Even the smallest of details became intensely
interesting. Maybe that's why I love photography. I try to capture what I see,
my own interpretation, not what someone else might see."


I also became a contributor to WisconsinNative.com, writing
and photographing for both the Wandering Wisconsin and Travel Green
features on the travel website through December, 2008. My photography has also
been published in regional magazines, national travel guides, and in a book on
Functional Architecture which was published in London in 2009.


Though I shoot in many genres, I most love the experience
of photographing the natural world. Nature grounds me. I can be myself  --
in the forest, the mountains, the desert, or the prairie -- in solitude with
nature.


My hobby is now a career, as I write and photograph as a
freelancer as the principal of Seeded Earth Studio, LLC.

 

Bo Mackison

Seeded Earth Studio LLC

Madison, Wisconsin

Category Archives: Madison

Photo Links Wednesday 3.10.10

03*10*2010 Posted in Madison ** Olympus E-3 ** Wisconsin ** photography ** photography links

A few articles from the last week. Anyone else have anything they’d like to share? Leave a link in the comments!
Photo Link Day!
Maybe this is a topic you give a lot of thought to, maybe it’s a topic that never crosses your mind. It’s an article from Digital Photography School on the quest for the...

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by Bo Mackison

4 comments

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Marcie - Thanks for all of the great links. As for camera bags - you may want to check-out 'epiphanie' and 'Jill-e'. Unfortunately - I can't speak about either of them..but they do look good!03/10/2010 - 6:41 am

Gandalf - The wall of pix is great. Are you up there?03/10/2010 - 7:37 am

Molly - Awesome photo.03/10/2010 - 10:09 am

Debi - This post is chocked full of information, Bo. I DO have a nice camera bag that I use for business gigs - a Temba Rolling Carrier. It carries my laptop and business papers and has ample compartments for two camera bodies with lens' attached AND plenty of space for extra lenses, etc. AND, the camera portion lifts out making it a perfect overnight bag! That it rolls has saved my sanity, though occasionally I still have to schlep it. However, that said, I still need a good bag for in the field. Often, I choose one lens for hiking and need another that I simply couldn't carry. So yeah..I'm interested in hearing from other women photographers, too. THANKS for all these neat links! Very useful!03/11/2010 - 3:19 pm

Trio of Orchids

03*04*2010 Posted in Madison ** Olympus E-3 ** Wisconsin ** garden ** macro ** nature ** photography

The sun is shining more, and the snow is melting, though I still have over a foot of snow in my yard. It will be awhile before I see flowers popping out of the ground in my neighborhood.
The next best thing is taking a drive across town to Olbrich Botanical Gardens and spending a couple...

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by Bo Mackison

11 comments

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Karen Wallace - What beautiful blooms Bo! I'm thrilled that even in the snowiest of times you can see a little 'tropicalness'...03/04/2010 - 2:52 am

Marcie - Exquisite detail. WOW!03/04/2010 - 7:40 am

Gandalf - Very lovely. I find orchids to be exquisit flowers.03/04/2010 - 7:54 am

Anna Surface - Bo, you are so fortunate to have Olbrich Botanical Gardens close by. These are exquisite orchids... as others have stated. Lovely close-up, composition and detail bringing the flowers forth in a pop with hello faces. :)03/04/2010 - 8:41 am

debsgarden - You have some beautiful photographs on your blog! This orchid s a wonderful color. I just happened upon your site in a roundabout way through blotanical. I will visit again!03/04/2010 - 9:50 am

Molly - Simply lovely. And they are purple which makes them even prettier!03/04/2010 - 4:58 pm

Montucky - How beautiful! I would love to have a place like that close enough to visit on a cold winter's day.03/04/2010 - 8:03 pm

Debi - Sigh. I'm so ready for spring!03/05/2010 - 12:29 pm

bernie kasper - Beautiful image Bo..I can never photograph Orchids to my liking but you really nailed this one, fine work !!03/05/2010 - 3:57 pm

Sue - Wonderful color and detail. Lovely image.03/07/2010 - 12:38 pm

joey - So lovely and fun to photograph!03/10/2010 - 8:27 am

Hub Caps

03*02*2010 Posted in Madison ** Olympus E-3 ** Wisconsin ** photography

I think every display of hub caps should be lit with Christmas lights –especially when they are wall decorations at the local taco place.

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by Bo Mackison

8 comments

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Gandalf - A very fun photo.03/02/2010 - 10:49 am

Marcie - What fun..and a great find!!!03/02/2010 - 12:54 pm

Montucky - Those were the days and the Christmas lights are very fitting with them!03/02/2010 - 9:47 pm

Susan See - Love the lighting and reflections!03/02/2010 - 10:29 pm

Debi - So freakin' creative - LOVE this idea!!! Gotta show the teenager when she gets home!03/03/2010 - 2:35 pm

Susan - Love it...shiny and sparkly...and of course, Mexican food...yummmmm!03/04/2010 - 1:56 pm

Molly - This photo made me smile!03/04/2010 - 4:55 pm

Sue - Fabulous and fun!!!03/07/2010 - 12:34 pm

Hot Stuff

03*01*2010 Posted in Madison ** Olympus E-P1 ** Wisconsin ** macro ** photography

Pick your pepper.
We were near a local hangout that offers a Tex-Mex weekend brunch, so we headed to Texx Tubb’s Taco Palace on Atwood Avenue after an early morning photo shoot. The food was fine, a Mexican omelette filled with cheese and peppers, but I was more interested in photographing the place. After the manager...

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by Bo Mackison

5 comments

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Molly - Decisions, decisions, right? LOL03/01/2010 - 1:24 pm

Anna - An omelet with cheese and peppers with a good dash of hot sauce would taste very good! I like photographing bottles... with stuff or not. Nice hot stuff shot. :)03/01/2010 - 4:46 pm

Montucky - An omelette sounds good, and of course plenty of the good stuff to put on it. That looks just a little like one of the shelves in our kitchen.03/01/2010 - 9:27 pm

Gandalf - great photo. Love the hot sauce.03/02/2010 - 10:48 am

Debi - This makes me hungry. Everything tastes better with hot sauce on it, and I'm crazy about Mexican omelets with hot sauce. Tabasco is KING in my world but I'm up to trying them all! Next time I visit Wisconsin I so need to try this place - I'm salivating!03/03/2010 - 2:34 pm

Fuzzy Ficus

02*28*2010 Posted in Madison ** Olympus E-3 ** Wisconsin ** garden ** macro ** nature ** photography ** wabi-sabi

A first glance, it appears that these ficus leaves have encountered a cold weather frost. Not so. This ficus plant grows in the Bolz Conservatory, the glass greenhouse that keeps the tropics alive in a tiny part of wintry Madison. And the white is the fuzziness of its new growth.

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by Bo Mackison

5 comments

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Montucky - That's really pretty! Looks like a furry winter jacket on the leaves.02/28/2010 - 4:08 pm

Marcie - Exquisite detail. That white fuzzy stuff looks so soft...03/01/2010 - 6:18 am

Gandalf - Reminds me of Fuzzy Wuzzy03/01/2010 - 8:04 am

Molly - The detail is incredible in this.03/01/2010 - 1:19 pm

Debi - AH, man...I'm ready to see some new green growth, fuzzy or not! This is choice - thanks for the treat!03/03/2010 - 2:32 pm

Yearning for Spring

01*30*2010 Posted in Madison ** Olympus E-P1 ** Wisconsin ** garden ** macro ** nature ** photography ** wabi-sabi

I’m experimenting with the Lensbaby Composer, a sweet little lens on a ball and socket that allows me to swivel the lens and focus on a focal point – or not! I find that using what some photographers refer to as a “play lens” frees me from the rules and lets me take photographs that...

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by Bo Mackison

7 comments

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Sue - I simply HAVE to get a Lensbaby. I keep talking about it, but I think it's time to do it! Love the effect you achieved in this one.01/30/2010 - 4:22 pm

Robin - This is really beautiful, Bo. I'm yearning for spring as well. I've had enough of this bitter cold.01/30/2010 - 4:56 pm

Gandalf - Well as to Spring the Ground Hog has his say on Tuesday. The abstract feel of your lensbaby is pretty cool.01/30/2010 - 5:38 pm

Montucky - I like the image and color, Bo. For some reason it immediately made me think of pictographs, perhaps Egyptian.01/30/2010 - 7:56 pm

Marcie - Such beautiful greens. Have been wanting to play with a lensbaby myself. What unusual and wonderful 'spring' effects!!!01/31/2010 - 1:13 pm

Molly - Very springtime! Like this one. :)02/02/2010 - 10:01 am

Tweets that mention Yearning for Spring » Seeded Earth Studio -- Topsy.com - [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Bo Mackison, D Murphy-Rodgers. D Murphy-Rodgers said: Yearning for spring: beautiful experiment with green and macro on Lensbaby Composer by @bo_mackison http://bit.ly/aIq6bs :o) [...]02/01/2010 - 6:49 am

Crystal Ice Prisms

01*24*2010 Posted in Madison ** Olympus E-P1 ** Wisconsin ** macro ** nature ** photography ** quotations ** wabi-sabi ** winter

I discovered Ken Libbrecht’s book called Field Guide to Snowflakes, a book, yes, all about snow. There is much going on in this frozen world that we are mostly unaware of, and it’s darn fascinating stuff! The book has photos of snowflakes produced under all sorts of weather conditions, including different temperatures and amounts of...

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by Bo Mackison

9 comments

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Dominique - With rain and what little snow we had rapidly thawing here, I'm really enjoying this bit of virtual snow today :)01/24/2010 - 12:31 pm

Anna Surface - I never thought to use black paper or cloth to catch a snowflake. That would be tricky to do so and quickly photograph it with a macro lens... yet a neat challenge! Beautiful photo and interesting post.01/24/2010 - 2:48 pm

Sue - I worry that I've moved just enough south to not have the opportunity to photograph snow. A year or so ago I tried to photograph snow flakes and subsequently read a few articles about the technique for doing so. Snow is truly a fascinating subject. I love your ice prisms. Nice subject and interesting reading in today's post!01/24/2010 - 4:01 pm

--Deb - I actually have a oopy of Bentley's book--page after page of photos of snowflakes (though not so pretty as Libbrich's book looks). It's astounding and, really, no two are the same! (I love when cliches are actually true.)01/24/2010 - 5:02 pm

Montucky - Fascinating stuff, Bo, and those ice prisms are magical.01/24/2010 - 9:52 pm

Molly - So pretty and precise!01/25/2010 - 1:37 am

bernie kasper - Beautiful image Bo..Don't know if I would ever have the patience to photograph snowflakes though ;)01/25/2010 - 9:11 pm

Gandalf - It's a good thing those are ice/snow & not thorns. They would be beauty with a bite otherwise.01/26/2010 - 3:35 pm

Susan - Thanks for the book idea! I just adore the snow and snowflakes. Delicate shot you have taken here...fragile, yet powerful01/29/2010 - 6:20 am

Library Silhouette

01*22*2010 Posted in Madison ** Olympus E-P1 ** Wisconsin ** photography ** winter

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by Bo Mackison

9 comments

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Anna - Ah! What is different now days of the inner library scene is one on a laptop instead of an open book. All those books stacked high. Neat capture from the view of within to without. Have you ever gone into the library, picked a section, and pulled books off the shelves at random gathering an armload? Then to take these books home to see if any are of a niggling interest and learn something new? I've done it both in fiction and nonfiction. :)01/22/2010 - 9:22 am

Bo Mackison - So right, Anna. I smiled when I saw he was using his laptop instead of reading a book. Then I got curious - counted 12 readers and 3 computer users at the tables in the adult stacks section. Not the computer section, which was about half full. So while I did capture this computer user - he was the one in front of the window I wanted to use - there were plenty of readers, too. That's a good thing.01/22/2010 - 11:10 am

Debi - Funny about the laptop - thanks for the follow-up, Bo. Libraries are miraculous places. I've not done what Anna mentioned but think that's a great idea! Lovely shot, as always.01/22/2010 - 12:00 pm

SHAZnyc - O man, this is awesome. You nailed it on the tones and angle. Great shot.01/22/2010 - 12:57 pm

Gandalf - I love the lines, angles and geometric shapes.01/22/2010 - 2:24 pm

quinncreative - What a great shot! I can almost smell the books and oiled tables. I love Anna idea of choosing a random stack of books and seeing what they might hold.01/22/2010 - 4:47 pm

Molly - I'd like to take his place there... :)01/22/2010 - 5:38 pm

Montucky - That has a very comfortable look to it!01/22/2010 - 9:28 pm

Candace - That's a gorgeous shot! So warm and cozy inside against the grey cold outside. I love the rich colors of the library and the clerestory windows. It makes me want to be there.01/24/2010 - 8:47 pm

Holding Hands – A Self-Portrait

01*18*2010 Posted in Madison ** Olympus E-P1 ** Wisconsin ** garden ** life lessons ** macro ** nature ** photography

On the most basic of levels, this is a photograph of overlapping leaves that I took using a Lensbaby Composer. But when I saw the photograph, it seemed to be much more than a few leaves, it seemed to be another one of those self-portraits I occasionally take that aren’t an actual self-portrait, but a...

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by Bo Mackison

10 comments

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Molly - That's incredibly creative, I love it. :D01/18/2010 - 5:46 pm

Joanna Young - Stunning! And a beautiful reminder of just what we're doing when we're outside :-)01/19/2010 - 1:33 am

Anna - That is very interesting! I like this and as a 'self-portrait'. :)01/19/2010 - 8:16 am

Gandalf - Interesting self-portrait, and I appreciate the insights into nature, architecture etc that you provide through your photos and blog.01/19/2010 - 9:33 am

bernie kasper - Beautiful shot Bo, great eye in capturing this, like your symbolic view on this !!01/19/2010 - 12:43 pm

Sue - Beautiful image; interesting analogy. I haven't explored the Lensbaby yet. That might be something I need to add to my bag....01/19/2010 - 7:33 pm

Ed Vatza - Oh wow! Very cool! There is also an embryonic look or even an otherworldly look to this image as well.01/20/2010 - 6:47 pm

ankush vimawala - wow, very original!01/21/2010 - 3:12 pm

Debi - Very nice, Bo. Your philosophy about self and nature is truly revealed in this photo. Love it.01/22/2010 - 11:54 am

ybonesy - Yes, I can see how this is a metaphorical self-portrait. It reminds me of an ultrasound, the image of a babies fingers en utero.01/26/2010 - 9:28 am

Orchids in Pink and White

01*16*2010 Posted in Madison ** Olympus E-P1 ** Wisconsin ** garden ** nature ** photography ** winter

This Wisconsin winter hasn’t been all that bad. Really. Even though we’ve had a fair amount of snow and a week or so of frigid weather, we are halfway through January and the days are growing noticeably longer. Today the temps climbed into the 30s. Even so, I was in the mood for a place...

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by Bo Mackison

6 comments

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Montucky - that would certainly do it! That photo shows that you haven't gotten rusty. Beautiful! I'm getting anxious for the first signs of spring.01/16/2010 - 10:46 pm

Sue - Beautiful composition and detail. I find orchids challenging to photograph and think you have handled them quite nicely. :)01/17/2010 - 11:03 am

Marcie - So beautiful!! Each and every one of these buds is more exquisite than the next. So artfully captured!!!01/17/2010 - 6:41 pm

Molly - So so pretty!01/17/2010 - 8:07 pm

Gandalf - Famously beautiful.01/18/2010 - 8:47 am

bernie kasper - Wonderful detail and color Bo, very nicely done !!01/19/2010 - 12:44 pm