Learning About Lichen

 

Script Lichen

As Florida Master Naturalists, and Interpretive Naturalists, Karl and I continuously attend programs to improve our knowledge of Florida’s natural world. Some of our certifications require the continuing education, others do not. For the most part, our past careers all required continuing education due to the constant change and advancement made in various fields over the years so this "life long learning" as it is now called is something we have always done. We find it fun, entertaining, and challenging.

Recently we attended a program “Life of Lichen” at Brooker Creek Preserve. I noticed this time and also in some recent programs the large amount of new up-to-date information available. After the program I asked the botanist about it. To me, it seems in the last few years more and more research is made available. Part of this is due to the Internet, and the freer exchange of information. Another part which he confirmed comes from the fact that the education requirements to enter the field of science increased over the past decade from a minimum of a bachelor’s degree to a minimum of a master’s degree with PhD usually preferred. Since both require more research, we benefit from these increased requirements.

I learned that my original mnemonic to remember the formation of lichen:

“Freddie Fungus and Alice Algae took a ‘lichen’ to each other” to describe the formation of lichen from the symbiotic relationship between certain type of fungus and algae is now dated. Recent discoveries found that sometimes the relationship is between fungus and bacteria, and can even be fungus, algae and bacteria. In addition, even more recent studies show wild yeast is involved.

This particular class I also look particular note of a lichen called Script lichen. I often see it on trees, but never realized it belonged to the lichen family. The lichen resembles a script language ‘written’ in white oblongs over a colored crust. As we walked along the boardwalk, we found numerous examples in just a short distance.

I will now notice it on all my walks, as I try to figure out a new mnemonic, making sure to include yeast in there somewhere.

Wildflower Garden at Brooker Creek Preserve

Common Sootywing

The wildflower garden at Brooker Creek Preserve fluttered with activity this past Saturday. No, the activity did not involve the volunteer gardeners, who meet the last Saturday of each month to improve and maintain this gem. Butterflies provided the activity, flying from flower to flower, occasionally disrupting each other and other insects.

The numerous Gulf Fritillaries maintained a more leisurely pace, languidly flying to each flower, then resting on it while enjoying the nectar and gathering the energy from the bright sunlight. Two Pipevine Swallowtails frantically raced about, colliding with each other either by accident or in a friendly bump to claim territory. They rarely lighted on a flower, instead furiously fluttered their wings as they fed on the pollen.

Gulf Fritillary

A beautiful Zebra Longwing, Florida’s state butterfly, appeared and attracted a lot of attention. It appeared relatively young in its butterfly life since the yellow stripes stood out prominently. A lone Common Sootwing looked a bit drab with all the colors of the other members of its genus flying about.

 

Zebra Longwing our state butterfly

We attended a program that morning that started at 10:30, so the photography took place in very strong, bright sunlight. The butterflies love it, the sun gives them energy. Photographers like it less so. Strong sunlight covered the entire garden so our standard advice to find a section on the shade didn’t work. Casting a shadow, either by having a person stand in the right position or holding a diffuser didn’t work either, it disturbed the butterflies, the subject of the shot. I put my polarizing filter on and tried that. With a few exceptions, I managed to get some nice portrait shots of the butterflies against or on the bright yellow flowers.

Sassy the Cat

Sometimes Sassy just looks and the camera and doesn't run. Usually, as I showed in other posts, I get a stern face from her and her sister. In this one, she just looked at me as if to say "I'll only stay a minute, hurry it up".

Green Tree Frog

Recently we restored an old computer, replacing the hard drive. Just out of curiosity, we also restored an old back-up, just to see what it contained.

I starting looking at some of the old photographs from 7 or 8 years ago, only a year or two into our serious photography venture. I shot a lot in those days, trying many new things. We often visited a place and did a shoot for a specific reason, a presentation, class or item for sale. In reviewing the files, I realized we focused on the reasons for the shoot when choosing the shots we used. We left behind some interesting shots.

I shot this tree frog that day, because he posed.

The Button Bush and the Bug

Late Spring and early Summer the Button Bush (Cephalanthus occidentalis) blooms with showy, Star Wars-like (for those of us who remember the Death Star) blooms. Butterflies and insects love this flower. I took these shots during our last Brooker Creek Preserve hike before summer, the end of May.

I used a zoom lens to not only bring the flower closer, since these bloomed a few feet from the boardwalk, but also to blur the background. The flower itself appears in full bloom, and the small insect appears to be kissing the stamen.

Shooting the Rainbow

This overruns the text on the side, deliberately. Only the extra-large size shows the full rainbow.

On Sunday morning, the early sun pouring in through the windows of my studio/office, I suddenly realized I heard rain. I looked out at the rain falling in the pool through the full sunshine, and immediately went to the front window, facing west.

I haven't seen a full rainbow in a while, and this one proved to be a beauty. I went outside and stared for probably a full minute before it occurred to me to get my camera. Rainbows by their nature tend to be fleeting, and this vibrant only for a short time. Luckily I had left the polarizing filter on the camera so I did not have to fuss with that. I shot two of the full rainbow, and then two of the most vibrant section before it began to fade. The filter enabled me to capture what I saw completely. Without the polarizer, the purple/lavender visible to the eye faded into the blue of the sky through the camera.

We often hear, and say, that still photography 'captures the moment'. In the case of an early morning summer rainbow, that saying applies. A partial twin rainbow appeared to the left only briefly, and disappeared by the time I got the camera. That one remains a memory only.

Street Photography My Style

Street photography appears everywhere in the photography world lately. In researching the term, I found nearly as many definitions as people who write about it. What is street photography anyway?

The word street misleads most people. That word conjures up an urban environment with candid shots of people passing by, walking away, or standing at corners of buildings. That is street photography, but what about a photo of a blue bike leaning against a stucco wall? A well-known street photographer took that, and many others similar to that, for an article on street photography in a publication a few years ago. The scene does not remind me of a city environment at all but maybe more a country town, and no people appeared but the bicycle suggested recent human presence.

Candid photography of people or things in an outdoor environment created or populated by humans with subject matter that suggests human presence better defines the street photography I see now. I shoot photographs of abandoned buildings that interest me, but without a human or apparent human presence I don’t consider that street photography.

Currently in most places in the United States various journalists and bloggers say you may take photographs of people in public places and use them commercially, display them, etc. Several professional photographers defended themselves in court on these grounds and won. Always check local laws, make sure that the place you take your photograph is in fact considered public, and most importantly, realize that the laws are changing. Also, many people, myself included, don’t appreciate a complete stranger standing there photographing them.

As to my style of street photography, I prefer photographs that suggest the human presence, or photographs of people that don’t show specific features making them more the “every man” or more politically correct “every person”. I especially like finding scenes like the one above. It shows an obviously abandoned building clearly going back to nature, with a shiny exercise bicycle in much better condition than its surroundings on what remains of the front porch, along with a half buried speed limit sign on the ground to the left. It intrigued me. We passed this scene in the car, and I asked Karl to turn around and go back for a second look. At that point we pulled over so I could take some shots. The newish exercise bike alludes to recent human presence, yet the rest of the scene appears abandoned for years.

Is it street photography? Yes, my version.

Into the Garden:Walk at Chapman Botanical Garden

One of the gardens at Chapman Botanical Garden

We visited Chapman Botanical Garden twice, both times in pouring rain. I walked around the entire garden, unable to do my favorite activity: sitting on the carefully placed garden benches to see the view the designer placed them to see. From the near constant rain, the benches remained soaking wet.

I walked back and forth between the small gardens in this compact but diverse garden, and kept returning to this scene. The path led under the trellis to an area with a garden along the right hand side. I loved the way the lines of the path curved into the garden, and felt that capturing that curved line in the photography would lead the viewer’s eye into the scene and enable them to see what I saw. I shot it several times, working each time to put the path starting in the lower right corner, and at the same time keep my horizon level. I felt I managed a good shot, and the small image on the back of the camera seemed to confirm it, but of course you don’t know for sure until it appears on the larger computer screen. The gray sky looks blown out, but it looks like the sky that day, uniform gray and rain. I debated on ‘photoshopping’ it, but decided that I preferred reality.

Unfortunately, most of my detail shots of this particular garden did not work. I covered my camera to protect it from the wet, but the rain still pushed me to shoot too fast, or perhaps I pushed myself. Not taking the proper time meant not getting the shots, a good lesson.