A lichen a day keeps depression at bay
These are challenging times. Winter generally is for many, including me. The cold weather increases my overall pain level. I’m pretty far north here in Denmark, so we don’t have a lot of sun and the days are often cloudy. And living six time zones away from my father and having lost my mother, my grandmother, and an aunt in the past few years makes the holidays much less festive.
I’ve had friends a few times feel like my lichen and moss photos helped cheer them up. And for me it will give me the chance to share some of my own obsession and maybe have people appreciate it a little. I just don’t seem to have the energy to start doing art submissions much, even though I keep intending it with my photography.
These pictures will primarily be lichen but I’ll mix in moss as well. Knowing me, some fungi may pop up also. I shoot a variety of color and black and white. The shot I put on my Twitter to see if there was any interest was black and white. I like how the monochrome shots emphasize the shapes and textures. But I know a lot of people, including my father, prefer color shots. And some lichen I see do have some neat colors or color mixes.
Today’s lichen:
Basic stats:
- Shot taken 28 November 2020
- Device: DSC-HX400V
- 1/100 sec. f/5 13.76mm
- ISO 320
I took this picture just across the road from my house. I think this lichen was growing on a birch, but I was shooting stuff on both birch and oak, so it’s possible I’m wrong.
The only editing on this shot is the compression posting it. Otherwise it is as taken. I believe this one used the “Vivid” mode on my camera–a mode I use very rarely as I tend to prefer a more natural look. But this one seemed to warrant it so that the colors reflect more how they appeared on a drab day when we’ve had a hard frost over night and everything is damp from the melting frost.
May you and yours stay safe, warm, and not-too-depressed.
