Moss Carpeting

Moss Carpeting

BHUT10D-198

November 19, 2010

Another photo from Bhutan to wrap up the week.  This comes to us from the National Botanical Garden, which is a bit of a misnomer because it was more akin to a National Park than a regular botanical garden.  It had hiking trails, camping spots, and picnic areas.  And the plants were not cultivated or arranged in any manner throughout the park, they were wild.  This area was beautiful; a cloud forest, the whole park was draped in ferns and moss and mushrooms.  And the cloudy day that we visited dampened the sound, so the place was ghostly quiet, and we felt like we had the whole place to ourselves.  This stump of a long-forgotten tree was a microcosm of the entire forest, covered in the yellowish lichens and ferns surrounding, feeding off the constant moisture of the air.  Happy Friday, and enjoy.

 

Technical notes:

Camera: NIkon D80

Lens: Nikon 105 mm f/2.8

Focal length: 105 mm

Exposure: 1/40   f/11   ISO 400

Post-processing: Toning and curves adjustment in PS4

The Misty Jungle of Inthanon

The Misty Jungle of Inthanon

THAI040301

June 16, 2004

Skipping to another national park in Thailand, Doi Inthanon is located near the northern cultural capital of Chiang Mai.  As you leave the city and head up to this park, while it remains jungle, it gets distinctly colder.  You are not in the steaming tropics; now you are ensconced in the (relative) cold of the cloudforest on the mountainside, where rain and fog predominate.  This is near the top of the mountain, which is the highest point in all of Thailand.  It is a beautiful park to explore, with several large, gorgeous waterfalls that carve through the landscape. Enjoy.
 

 

Technical notes:

Camera: NIkon N80
Film: Provia 100F

Lens: Nikon 28-105 mm f/3.5-4.5

Focal length: 105 mm

Exposure: 1/60   f/2.8 ISO 100

Post-processing: Scanned on a Nikon Coolscan 5000, toning and curves adjustment in PS4

Temperate Lush Forest

Temperate Lush Forest

WASH07D-57

December 26, 2007

Man I wish that spring would arrive.  We're having a balmy winter, which is plain no fun.  If you're going to be winter, and lose all your leaves and turn the landscape into stick-ville, then give us some cold and snow so we can have fun and play in the white powder.  So, today's image is pining for some greenery out there.  This comes from one of the very few temperate rainforests (left) in the world, the lush forests of the Olympic peninsula and of Olympic National Park in Washington.  This was taken in December, right after Christmas, and you can see all the greenery that is still on the ground and in the trees.

This area is beautiful, and was the focus of my first interest in backpacking years ago as a young teenager on a family camping trip (a dream that went unfulfilled at the time).  It was the first time I thought about taking multiple days to hike across a landscape, carrying everything on our backs.  I still remember the tentative route I had sketched out on the park map, figuring we'd need 2 weeks to go down and back right through the center of the forest.  But even though it was not meant to be, it laid the foundation for many of my wanderings to come, up to this day.  Enjoy.

 

Technical notes:

Camera: NIkon D80

Lens: Nikon 18-135 f/3.5-5.6

Focal length: 18 mm

Exposure: 1/20   f/5.6 ISO 800

Post-processing: Slight texture,toning and curves adjustment in PS4