Mushroom a Day (2 of 6)
Category: Forest
Mushroom a Day (1 of 6)
Mt Edith Cavell is one of the more spectacular mountains in Jasper. It is the home to Angel Glacier, a lake with icebergs floating in it, and many relatively tame pikas, marmots, and chipmunks. When I was in Jasper recently, I woke up at 4:30 in the morning so I could hike up Cavell Meadows in the dark to catch the sun rising on Mt. Edith Cavell. What did I come away with? A bunch of mushrooms. They’re just so cute.
I’m posting a series of tiny mushroom shots here over the next week. This one starts it off.
Fresh Cafe
I almost forgot — I just updated the photos in Fresh Cafe. There’s now a little tropical corner with some of my photos from Barbados and Dominica. Go grab a coffee and check them out!
This photo is in the cloud forest near Boeri Lake in Dominica after a we’d been hiking for a few hours. You can probably spot one of the dogs, the other is a little more camouflage. They hiked with us all the way from the treehouse where we were staying. I guess they needed a little adventure too.
14mm, f2.8, 1/30 or a second
Burtonsville Island
I got a chance to get outside yesterday, and I headed out to Burtonsville Island Natural Area. I haven’t been there this year yet, and there were a lot of surprises. There are coal mines and oil wells everywhere, and they’ve made it harder to access the natural area. There is the constant drone of mining machinery and I didn’t see as much wildlife as I often do around there. Once I figured out how to access the area (they’ve changed the roads around) I got my next surprise. The water on the North Saskatchewan River was still pretty high and there was evidence that it was about 8 feet higher at one point (which would have come close to submerging the island). No one else had been there and the trails were all getting very overgrown or non-existant. I still managed to get across the beaver dam to the island (at least the beavers keep things in good repair), but it was soggy going. I got entirely soaked pushing through the rain-soaked undergrowth, but it was a beautiful evening and I got to test out my new camera, so I’m happy. It will take me a while to get a good feel for it, but first impressions are that the Canon 6D is a very nice camera indeed, and a great update to my old 5d.
Sorry for the gross image, but this is the flood evidence on the island.
17mm, f8, 1/500 of a second
Birch in the Afternoon
This was one of the most beautiful afternoon walks I’ve had in a while. I headed out to the Waskahegan Staging Area of the Blackfoot Lake Recreation Area, and wandered around for a few hours. I found this little birch grove, got dive bombed by black terns, conversed with a catbird, relaxed with a deer, shivered with howling coyotes, and got to enjoy a fantastic sunset. The only downside was the mosquitos, although there was a breeze for a bit that helped.
7mm, f5, 1/60 of a second
Symbiotica
Symbiotica — A collaborative exhibition of poetry and visual art.
Thursday from 6:00pm – 8:00pm at the Daffodil Gallery
Philip Jagger and I will have a piece on display that we collaborated on over the last month or so. There are a bunch of other collaborations there as well — should be fascinating! Hope to see you there!
And, completely unrelated to Symbiotica, here’s a shot from Vancouver Island last fall.
300mm, f8, 1/250 of a second
Stark
A burnt log in a mountain forest. Taken in Banff National Park.
100mm, f5.6, 1/1600 of a second
Green and Full of Life
A photo from a long time ago that I completely overlooked. Today it looked sooo good to me — in winter the grass is always greener on the other side. I’ll have to get out to the mountains and remind myself that I really do like winter…
24mm, f5.6, 1/15 of a second
When There Was No Snow
Sometimes the light hits an un-extraordinary subject in just the right way and creates an extraordinary scene. My favorite part of this photo, though, is going to depend on your monitor being a reasonable brightness. In a print this is something you can easily control but online it gets harder — I love the dark fall tones and subtle evening light in the background.
Taken in Elk Island National Park, 150mm, f2.8, 1/800 of a second.
Mt Butte Natural Area
