Tulip Bed on the Square © 2010 Bo Mackison
We went on a brief foray to the Dane County Farmers Market in Madison this past Saturday. It was a gorgeous day, appropriate for May Day, and evidently everyone else must had the same idea. We began our morning by ducking into a little spot for a bite of breakfast (Bradbury’s — yummy!) and then we ventured forth towards the market.
I was briefly distracted by this beautiful bed of tulips — love that red fringe — and so I had to take a few photos. I liked how there was a streak of sunlight showing off a few of the flowers. Then I dodged a few hundred people in the first half of the first block while trying to check out the asparagus and spinach. We decided to turn around and head home before we’d barely gotten started. Too many people.
I think I may be a rainy day friend of the Farmers Market. It has gotten so popular that the best time to check out the produce and visit with the vendors is either when the market opens at 6 am or when it’s cloudy and chilly.
Might get my chance this coming weekend — rain in the forecast.
Capitol Silhouette © 2010 Bo Mackison
New news from Seeded Earth Studio! I have recently taken official steps to branch my photography into two directions.
I shoot a lot of nature and landscape photography, and these photographs will continue to appear (almost daily) on the Seeded Earth blog.
But I also have a passion for visiting and photographing historical places, and I’ve recently started a new website and blog which focuses on this genre of photographs. The new site is called, quite originally, Historic Places Photography. I feature a historic building (for now, mostly from Wisconsin, Illinois, and Arizona) two to three times a week.
I intend, in the future, to offer architectural photography to the dedicated people who undertake restorations of historical properties, and also to provide downloadable walking tours featuring photographs and information on the architecture of historic buildings in smaller cities and towns throughout the Midwest.
For now, I hope you’ll visit Historic Places Photography and check out the photography.
Wisconsin State Capitol
Hans Christian Heg, a statue of Norweigian immmigrant who was a soldier in the Civil War. A prominent statue on the grounds of the State Capitol, and one I’ve photographed repeatedly without ever liking the results. Somehow, the snow and the white stone set the dark statue off to its best advantage, and I finally have my photo.
under the Wisconsin Capitol's Christmas Tree
For as many years as I have been visiting the State Capitol in Madison, Wisconsin to see the Christmas Tree filling the rotunda, it has always had a certain simplicity about it which I love. The tree sparkles with lights. There are hundreds of hand crafted paper ornaments made by Wisconsin school children. And there has always been a model train circling the tree. Nothing fancy – this year a Wisconsin & Southern replica engine and a few cars are traveling ’round and ’round along a circular track – but it follows a rather nice tradition.
Crossroads at Old World Wisconsin
How did it get so late so soon.
It’s night before it’s afternoon.
December’s here before it’s June.
My goodness how the time has flewn.
How did it get so late so soon?
Dr. Seuss
Ah, the shortest day of the year. Cloudy, cold, gray outside.
Lots of lights are on inside though, for today only I’m ignoring the electric meter. The lights on the tree are glowing – all those bright LEDs in their sapphire blues, and ruby reds and emerald greens. They truly look like jewels.
Outside looks rather like the above photograph. But the photograph I’m keeping safely tucked inside my mind looks rather like the following one:
Lights like Tiny Jewels
Ah, that is so much better!
A is for Apples, Ripened and Round
B is for Barn, No Walls to be Found
C is for Chicken, a Scrap Metal Creature
D is for Dome, a Capitol Feature
Continue with Wisconsin Alphabet, E through H.
Living in the capitol of Wisconsin, it is hard to pass this stately building wthout taking a photo now and then. Friday night my Sherpa and I lugged the camera gear to the Isthmus (the Capitol building is on a narrow strip of land between two large urban lakes) where we dallied with dinner at a local brew-pub, then strolled over to the Monona Terrace Roof Garden.
We enjoyed the steady breeze off Lake Monona, and watched the clouds move in, cover the Capitol dome in gray, and then slip away again. Finally the Capitol lights went on and I set up and took a few photographs. She’s a mighty handsome building – this Capitol with the loveliest gold statue of ‘Miss Forward’ standing atop her highest stone.