Tiny Treasures

Her journey began as a quest for answers to questions created by time, created when the role previously dominating her life disappears. A fifty-five year old woman, Mary McKSchmidt packs her car with an assortment of old camping gear, a bicycle, camera, stack of pocket-size spiral notebooks and sets off alone to explore the dunes framing the eastern coast of Lake Michigan. A former corporate executive accustomed to five star hotels, she braves nights alone in a tent as she wanders trails and bike paths stretching from the Indiana Dunes to Mackinac Island. Always with her, poking their tiny faces through the drab remnants of winter, are wildflowers. Intrigued, hoping to learn their names, she pauses to take their pictures. In the second edition of Tiny Treasures, Mary McKSchmidt shares reflections inspired by the wildflowers and over one hundred of her favorite photographs as she takes the reader behind the lens of her camera. In this artistic combination of writing and photography, the artist shares her transition from life working for the CEO of a Fortune 500 company to one pausing to celebrate, share, and protect even the tiniest treasures of Nature.