In addition to macro, nature and focus pull photography, I love community art sculptures and neon signs as well as painted walls. I’ll probably add a page showcasing some of the gorgeous art I’ve been lucky enough to photograph. This is one of my favorites. As soon as Beacon Bloom went up, I decided I needed to photograph it from a different viewpoint than anyone else was doing. If you drove through the roundabout that night, you likely saw me practically doing a headstand to get the right angle looking up through the sculpture. I also had a great story ready in case the local gendarmes begged to differ with my plan. They did not, and this is that shot.
Sunburst Lichen
I’m fascinated by all things lichen. This is Xanthoria parietina. Use the slider to see the dramatic difference in color between being dry and wet.
Clawed Monet
Beach walks are my favorite…
Sitting in the dark
When I first stumbled on the beginnings of the stemonitis slime mold last June, I didn’t know what it was and thought they were insect eggs. A quick Google search showed me the error of my ways and I was incredibly disappointed to discover that, had I stayed around a bit longer, I would have seen the transformation from tiny yellow dots to chocolate brown tubes on a stalk - all within a short period of time. “Short” meaning around twelve hours.
Going back to the same spot in the middle of my woods the next evening, I was excited to find a new patch of tiny yellow dots developing, so I set up camp with my camera, tripod, extra battery, fully charged phone and a beach towel - ultimately none of which was particularly effective in scaring off bugs I didn’t even know existed up to that point. I began my evening around 8 PM and started taking photographs every couple of minutes. With no real knowledge of how to do a time lapse sequence, I was just winging it and ended up with several hundred photos over the course of the night. At 3 AM my second camera battery gave out, the stemonitis was nearing the end of its journey and I was done with the damp, the dark and the bugs - so I packed up and went home.
In my part of the world, stemonitis seems to develop beginning in the late afternoon/early evening and continues throughout the night. I am envious of those for whom it is a daylight process. Until this night, I did not know there were cockroaches with wings to fly. I wish I still didn’t know that. I sat in complete darkness except for the firing of the flash every so often and I’m pretty sure that just ended up being some sort of love signal to the flying cockroaches.
These pictures are the outcome of being passionate about slime molds and sitting in the middle of the woods in the dark to capture the transformation. I took the last picture the following morning. If I’m lucky enough to see slime molds this summer, I’ll be the one in a pop up tent that’s totally zipped up except around my camera lens.
