Macricostas Preserve, Washington, Connecticut.
Hiked in this great place again today and I always stop at this one rock that’s covered with a variety of moss and lichen and god knows what else. It’s really loaded with life.
The articulating LCD on the Fuji X70 makes awkward shots like this a lot easier. I use to enjoy it on an older Canon G series point and shoot and I’m definitely finding it useful on this camera.
Appalachian Trail, Mt. Race, Southwest Massachusetts. Hiked up Mt. Race and on my way down noticed that the muggy weather was making the lichen “bloom.”
The foot traffic on the Appalachian Trail wipes out lichen but any rock outcropping that’s a bit off trail that isn’t walked on much tends to be loaded.
Most of my shots in this day’s collection didn’t work out very well: even stopped down, one has to be pretty square with the surface in order to get edge to edge focus and when I’m tired my ability to do this diminishes. Also, while a viewfinder is useful for some kinds of photography, doing this stuff at ground level would be very tough on one’s knees. In all honesty, the older I get the more I rely on a camera’s autofocus as I can’t see focus edge to edge anymore, not without glasses which I don’t carry on hikes.
West Cornwall, Connecticut. This was taken on a group of rocks on the Appalachian Trail between West Cornwall Road and Rt. 112. It’s interesting because I haven’t done this hike in four years but I remembered that there was good lichen on it and lo and behold, I found some.
Coyote tracks
Pine Swamp, West Cornwall, Connecticut. Dave and I snowshoed up to our favorite beaver sanctuary on the Appalachian trail near here.
On the way there we passed a number of places where a group of coyotes had “marked” trees (urine stains in the snow) and scratched to cover tracks. The low light made their tracks stand out and it was a bit unnerving to see so many of them in one place.
Pine Swamp beaver pond
The pond was frozen although in shooting ice (another batch of mages coming soon) I fell through the crusted snow and got a bit wet. Thank god for gaiters.
Lichen
On the way back I figured I’d given shooting lichen another shot (pun intended) with the Ricoh GR’s high contrast filter and the results were more interesting than the years of lichen shots I’ve been making. I think I see my next series coming. I liken lichen, especially in high contrast.
My friend Gary Sharp has posted a dramatic monochrome image of lichen on the Humbug Mountain trail done with his iPhone 5 and Hipstamatic.
Mt. Everett, Massachusetts. This lichen was on the side of a hut on the Appalachian trail on the northeast side of Mt. Everett.
Dave and I hiked Kaaterskill High Peak today and while it was a tough hike it went well and we enjoyed it. Took pictures with both S90 and iPhone.
Lichen on the path taken with iPhone and Instagram filter.
Butterfly on the path, taken with iPhone and Instagram filter.
Richard's Notes 