Lichen on a Tree Along the Blue Ridge Parkway Acrylic Print

This little ecosystem contains a diverse collection of fungi, including lichen (which are a combination algae and fungus) and mushrooms). Fungus and lichen live off the remains of an old rotting tree. The tree is in an area near Walker Knob that gets an inordinate amount of moisture and has many old trees, thus there is a lot of lichen and fungus. I easily count five different species on this one tree. I was there as part of a ranger lead hike

I love to tell stories. About twenty years ago I had my first freelance travel article accepted by a magazine. Much to my surprise, the magazine expected photos along with words. I had not taken any during the preliminary work for my article. I drove back to the site and took the photos for the article with my little Olympus digital camera. The article was published with those very amateur photos. In time, I bought an Olympus OMD-EM5, a great camera for nature and travel photographers and discovered that I enjoyed telling stories with pictures more than I did with words. The last twenty year have been an incredibly exciting time as resources for photographers have exploded. I have been lucky enough to have some great teachers along the way...