lichen – Boolie

Paved With Gold

There is gold at your feet that leads not to greed and destruction, but to wonder. I photographed this yellow brick road a year ago, a focus stack of 28 images since the boulder was so bumpy. I’ve been meaning to relocate this lichen since I enjoy taking pictures of the same subject over time, and I must have walked past it recently when Bear decided to take this fork of the trail, but the pace he sets doesn’t exactly allow you to revel in the subtlety of the desert. To be fair even when alone I often get distracted by other things I see and forget to look for what I originally hoped to find.

If I Could Change Careers …

If I could snap my fingers and change careers, I’d like to study lichen. It’s not that they are my favorite organism or anywhere near the top of the list, but rather I think they’d be endlessly fascinating to study and just as importantly, move at my speed. If you know anyone looking for a lichenthrope with no biological training and rather high salary demands, hit me up.

Their color is supposed to be influenced by their pigments, photosynthesis components, and how wet they are, but I suspect their favorite flavor of curry also plays a role. The lichen in the first picture clearly favors green curry, the greatest of the curries, while in the second we have fans of red and yellow. The gray lichen I assume understand that variety is the spice of life and enjoy them all.

The Forest & The Sea

Another homage to my former home, I was photographing areas where the moss and lichen embrace and this scene reminded me of the Oregon coast from above. The moss standing in for the evergreen forests stretching into the sky, the lichen caressing the granite representing the Pacific washing over the rocky beaches and around the sea stacks.

There are many giant wonders in this desert, many small ones too.

The Cask of Amontillado

‘Tis you, Fortunato?

Cone on the Cob

A Douglas’ squirrel chews through the outer part of the cone to get to the seed underneath, like we would eat corn on the cob except that we are interested in the corn not the cob. A lovely little squirrel, and native too. Taken at Leadbetter Point State Park on the Long Beach Peninsula in Washington.

From the Top

Water eases over the top of Latourell Falls, beginning the long fall to the bottom and the short journey to the Columbia.

Through the Forest Latourell Lies, Latourell Falls

Yellow

One of the reasons I went to Latourell Falls was to see if I could get close-ups of the massive yellow lichen patch near the waterfall. I brought my 100-400 Canon zoom and hooked it up to the Sony A6500 and found the biggest difficulty while trying to manually focus was that, as I had the peaking indicator set to yellow, and since I was photographing a fairly flat scene, the whole screen would practically light up yellow when the scene was in focus. But since everything was already yellow …

You can change the focus peaking color but I couldn’t remember how and since I was in no hurry I was able to zoom in on the display and get the focus set. If I could have seen a bit better I would have shifted things slightly so the plants on the far left would have been a little further inside the picture, but I was pretty happy with this as a first attempt.

I’m amazed by the diverse forms that life takes, and how often life can take a foothold even in inhospitable areas.

Mint Chocolate

The Dry Rain Forest

I recently got back from a week of hiking in Washington and made my fourth visit to the Hoh Rain Forest. My fourth dry visit to the Hoh Rain Forest. While it rained heavily during much of my trip, it was warm and sunny during my visit to the Hoh, so I’ll make a return trip this winter to all but guarantee a rainy day.

I wonder if tourists would pay me on sunny days to walk behind them with a watering can held above their head, to better get the full rainforest experience.