It's been raining here almost everyday, and all of that moisture has made some interesting things shoot up. These are slime molds. Slime molds belong to the kindgom Protista. They actually resemble a colony of amoebae. When conditions are right these amoeba-like organisms join up in a mass called a plasmodium that actually crawls over the ground, or rotten wood, or whatever, looking for a place to spore. These plasmodia can reach considerable size. I saw some yellow Fuligo plasmodia crawling over the forest floor that were a couple feet across. They were crawling right over plants, and up tree trunks. Unfortunately I only had my extreme close up gear with me so I didn't get a shot
Often special structures are formed from which the spores are dispensed. These structures have otherworldly shapes and colors. Usually they are very small, only millimeters in size, and when they are fresh they are moist and shiny. They are very fragile, and a single careless touch can destroy them.
These were taken deep in the woods where insect repelent don't do chit. I smashed a mosquito on my forehead and I had blood just running off my fingers from it. No telling what it bit before me. I hope I don't get the monkey pox or something. I'm not going to write much about each one of these because frankly I don't know all that much about them. Slime molds seem to be under-studied, and under photographed. They're still very mysterious little things. I guess you could call this a peek into a hidden world.
This one looks like some coral reef organism, like a gorgonian or something. This frame represents just a few square millimeters of the real world.
These branched ones are really cool. They just looked like a fuzz growing on the rotten wood. Their structure was not discernable to the naked eye.
I've posted shots of Hemitrichia before. Here and here are a couple different colors of them. These are very tiny, just a millimeter or two tall. I've never seen the red ones before. They almost look like drops of molten steel.
This one looks like some undersea sponge on a coral reef somewhere. Most of them were growing in little round patches, but these ones had an interesting shape to them.
I don't really like how this one came out. There just wasn't much detail to capture. I got another shot with the whole frame filled with a larger growth of them, but it just didn't show their translucency as well. It's a commonly accepted rule that groups of odd numbers of things are more interesing than even numbers. You've probably noticed that a lot of my shots show pairs of things. Two patches of this yellow slime. Two patches of the spongy slime up above. Two bird's nest fungi in this shot I posted in another thread. I just love pairs of things. That might make me strange, but I'm the one doing this, so deal with it
There's many, many more. I missed some little pink ones that looked like tiny tufts of cotton candy by about a day. They were old and kind of nasty looking when I found them. Some species only fruit in the fall. Last fall I found some that were actually a metalic purple color.
I might as well show some flowers since I got a couple requests for them. These are mostly just weeds, and they're not traditional flower pictures, but it's my style so chances are few people ever look at them this way.
Moth mullein is just a common roadside weed. It also comes in yellow. I guess the reproductive parts are supposed to look like a moth's face.
The stigma of a red geranium from the garden center. This is just a few millimeters tall.
Speedwell is just a common yard weed, but some varieties are being cultivated now. Speedwell belongs to the genus Veronica. This flower is very tiny, just a little white speck in the grass. I like the delicate purple and blue of the stigma.
I guess that's it for now. Here's the equipment I used to take these shots. Canon EOS D60 with MP-E 65mm macro lens and a MT-24EX flash. All were taken at 1:1 or more, some much more. If you want to know more about a particular photo or subject ask away.
It's fortunate that the higher animals developed in such a way that we do not have deciduous, one-time-use reproductive structures like the majority of organisms on planet earth. That's just not something I want to dwell on for very long:Q
Let me know what you think.
Often special structures are formed from which the spores are dispensed. These structures have otherworldly shapes and colors. Usually they are very small, only millimeters in size, and when they are fresh they are moist and shiny. They are very fragile, and a single careless touch can destroy them.
These were taken deep in the woods where insect repelent don't do chit. I smashed a mosquito on my forehead and I had blood just running off my fingers from it. No telling what it bit before me. I hope I don't get the monkey pox or something. I'm not going to write much about each one of these because frankly I don't know all that much about them. Slime molds seem to be under-studied, and under photographed. They're still very mysterious little things. I guess you could call this a peek into a hidden world.
This one looks like some coral reef organism, like a gorgonian or something. This frame represents just a few square millimeters of the real world.
These branched ones are really cool. They just looked like a fuzz growing on the rotten wood. Their structure was not discernable to the naked eye.
I've posted shots of Hemitrichia before. Here and here are a couple different colors of them. These are very tiny, just a millimeter or two tall. I've never seen the red ones before. They almost look like drops of molten steel.
This one looks like some undersea sponge on a coral reef somewhere. Most of them were growing in little round patches, but these ones had an interesting shape to them.
I don't really like how this one came out. There just wasn't much detail to capture. I got another shot with the whole frame filled with a larger growth of them, but it just didn't show their translucency as well. It's a commonly accepted rule that groups of odd numbers of things are more interesing than even numbers. You've probably noticed that a lot of my shots show pairs of things. Two patches of this yellow slime. Two patches of the spongy slime up above. Two bird's nest fungi in this shot I posted in another thread. I just love pairs of things. That might make me strange, but I'm the one doing this, so deal with it
There's many, many more. I missed some little pink ones that looked like tiny tufts of cotton candy by about a day. They were old and kind of nasty looking when I found them. Some species only fruit in the fall. Last fall I found some that were actually a metalic purple color.
I might as well show some flowers since I got a couple requests for them. These are mostly just weeds, and they're not traditional flower pictures, but it's my style so chances are few people ever look at them this way.
Moth mullein is just a common roadside weed. It also comes in yellow. I guess the reproductive parts are supposed to look like a moth's face.
The stigma of a red geranium from the garden center. This is just a few millimeters tall.
Speedwell is just a common yard weed, but some varieties are being cultivated now. Speedwell belongs to the genus Veronica. This flower is very tiny, just a little white speck in the grass. I like the delicate purple and blue of the stigma.
I guess that's it for now. Here's the equipment I used to take these shots. Canon EOS D60 with MP-E 65mm macro lens and a MT-24EX flash. All were taken at 1:1 or more, some much more. If you want to know more about a particular photo or subject ask away.
It's fortunate that the higher animals developed in such a way that we do not have deciduous, one-time-use reproductive structures like the majority of organisms on planet earth. That's just not something I want to dwell on for very long:Q
Let me know what you think.
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