Fungus among us

When do the words fungus, mold and rotting mean beauty? In the forest, in the filtered evening light when it's still wet from rain the night before last. Stick your nose in the fungus... it's okay... it looks even better that way. ;)

I took a mini walk in the woods tonight. My breathing is improving and I'm going a bit stir crazy here in the house. So I grabbed my camera, tripod and ring light and set out to find an interesting blip. Sounds like I remembered to bring it all, eh? It was quite a load... but I forgot an essential item... mosquito repellant! Mosquitos aren't usually much of a problem, as autumn is upon us. But today they were out in masses. Much smaller than the ones from earlier this summer and they give a little sting when they bite. Little bastards were all over me; biting even my face as I tried to concentrate. I stuck it out, and at one point (when I backed away from the camera setup to flail my arms like a crazy person) I looked back at the camera and there were a dozen or more ON the camera and tripod! That's when I called it quits. As long as I was moving it wasn't so bad. Other than that it was a nice outing and I was happy to have found an almost floral looking fungus to shoot.

This is on a hollow tree stump with moss growing up the side and fall leaves in the center of the trunk. It provide lots of color and the damp conditions seemed to enhance the colors all the more. I thought I'd like it in black and white, but in the end decided that the color image was my favorite. It better represents the feel of the forest during the autumn season.