Lichen Photo Shoot

Lichen is an interesting creature of mother nature. I started paying attention to it a few years ago and I'm trying to take some photos, whenever I can. Taking good photos of lichen is not easy as these creatures are quite small. So what usually happens is that I take a lot of photos with my cellphone, come home and see that a good part of the photos are blurry and have to delete them.

Yesterday, on my way home, I saw a 50cm long branch on the ground, nicely covered by lichen. I knew this was my chance to do a proper photo shoot as I wanted to for a long time. Breaking branches is not my style, but if mother nature is handing me one over for free, I'm taking it. So I took the branch home and finally had time to take as many shots as was necessary to get the result I wanted. Most likely I could have done better, but I did my best.

For those of you who don't know what lichen is, here it is

A lichen is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi species in a mutualistic relationship. Lichens are important actors in nutrient cycling and act as producers which many higher trophic feeders feed off of, such as reindeer, gastropods, nematodes, mites, and springtails. Lichens have properties different from those of their component organisms. They come in many colors, sizes, and forms and are sometimes plant-like, but are not plants. They may have tiny, leafless branches (fruticose); flat leaf-like structures (foliose); grow crust-like, adhering tightly to a surface (substrate) like a thick coat of paint (crustose); have a powder-like appearance (leprose); or other growth forms. source

My knowledge of lichen is very limited, but it seems like what you see on the photo is a Yellow Wall Lichen. Grows mostly on branches. Some lichens grow on stones, maybe I'm going to take some photos of those as well.

Although most lichens are shades of greenish or bluish grey, others are white, brown, black, reddish – even bright yellow or orange. These colours are caused by chemicals, often acids, produced by the fungal partner.

The bright orange yellow wall lichen Xanthoria parietina is a common, easily recognised lichen especially in nutrient-enriched sites. Look for it on trees and on many of the boulders in the Rock of Ages, where it benefits from the nutrient-rich droppings of perching birds. source

With this occasion I had the chance to try out different camera settings. When you don't know which option to use, you improvise.

I'm always in a fake it till you make it mode, I tried every option, from macro to food.

What I wanted to obtain was sharp images and a warm color. Most likely I failed both :)

To make my life even harder, I chose this bamboo placemat as background, that has some strait lines. I chose it for the brown color, not thinking of the consequences. Having those lines on the mat forced me to align the lines correctly. It's not a bad thing after all, just had to be more careful.

In case you're wondering how big the branch or the lichen is, here it is.

This is the lichen photo session. It was a lot of fun and I'm planning to repeat it as I need to practice more.

Do you know lichen? Have you ever seen any?

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