Category: Photo

Mushrooms in October

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After some days with heavy rain I went out for a walk nearby our house. I hoped to find some mushrooms to shoot. It was a quite short walk as the paths around here was muddy and very wet, some of them turn into creeks after the rainfall.

Well, I was lucky and found some mushrooms. I love to shoot mushrooms and this autumn they have been difficult to find. I was lucky to find some on my little walk, but they probably are the last ones this season. This week we actually had one day with snow, so winter awaits just around the corner.

Through the forest

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Walking in the forest has always been one of my favorite things to do. When I was a child I loved to go for forest walks with my father. He thought me a lot of different plants, trees and berries. Maybe that’s why I grew so fond of macro photography.

It is a good combination to be fond of walks in the woods and macro photography. Finding the right target for macro photography takes some time so you have to walk slowly and use your eyes. It is necessary to leave the path because the most interesting macro targets often can be found on old tree logs, stones or hidden in the moss. Sometimes the sun beams hit a tree or a stone and gives you a lovely scenery when you walk by. For me walking through the forest it’s like being a part of a fairytale.

Under the old oak tree

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When I walk my dog I have several paths to choose between. Beside one of these paths there are some quite old trees, well I assume that they are old. One of these old trees, a spruce, is very large. I am trying to find a way to take a good photo of it, but so far I haven’t succeeded. I have tried different angles, but it doesn’t look good.

The other old trees alongside this path are two oak trees which stands almost next to each other. As they are very big it is difficult to take photos of them in full figure but a shot from beneath shows the beauty in these trees, I think. The chunky, grey log against the light green leaves is a good looking color combination together with the light blue sky above.

I wonder how old these two oaks really are?

Wonderful autumn

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Autumn is a wonderful time of the year when nature present a beautiful and colorful world.

Walking through the woods and watch the leaves, still on the trees, in all shades of red, yellow and brown is just a beautiful and inspiring experience.

Leaves covers the path I am walking on and the sound of them beneath my feet is kind of joyful and reminds me of a little child playing, gathering a pile of leaves, throwing them up in the air, laughing as they fall down to the ground.

Birch leaf in the sun
Aspen leaf with droplets
Rowan leaf
Blueberry leaves

Mushrooms

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September is here and it is mushroom season. Hunting mushrooms is fun, but I think I may like better to shoot them with my camera than pick and prepare them for a meal. This year there have been too little rain so now there are quite few mushrooms in the forest, but I did get a few shots and I even got to pick some for a delicious soup of chanterelle and porcini.

The mushrooms in the photos below is rough-stem bolete (Leccinum scabrum) and white birch bolete (Leccinum niveum or L. holopus). Edible but not especially tasty in my opinion.

Calluna vulgaris

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Ling or Calluna vulgaris is a beautiful late summer flower growing in Norwegian pine forests and in the mountains. The evergreen shrub can be over 50 years old and sometimes it cover large areas. When it is in full bloom it is just like a pink carpet covering the ground.

Orchids in Norway

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I always thought of orchids as an exotic flower, so I think it is fantastic that there is wild orchids to be found in Norway too. They may not be quite as beautiful as the ones you find in more tropic areas, but they are beautiful in their own way.

In the forest close to were I live you can find one of the most common orchids growing in Norway, Dactylorhiza maculata also known as heath spotted or moorland spotted orchid.

Moorland spotted orchid
Spider on a visit.

Blueberry

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Walking in the forest is like walking in a very large art gallery except you have to find your own beautiful treasures amongst thousands of displayed items.

It is fun to follow the development of the forest plants throughout the year. I always get excited when I find the blueberry plants (Vaccinium myrtillus) displaying their light pink flowers in May. The shape of the flower is very beautiful and reminds me of a greek ancient vase.

The photos show the blueberry plant in three stages.

Blueberry flower

Green, unripe blueberry

Tasty blueberry

Marsh violet

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The latin name of this little wild flower is Violeta palustris. It is very small, but I think the pale lilac color of the petals is very delicate and make the little flower stand out from the green grass it is surrounded with.

Trollius europaeus

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Walking in the forest in early summer you can find a lot of beautiful flowers and one of them is the yellow Trollius europaeus. In Norway it is called “flower ball”. It mostly grows next to a water source like a little creek, a swamp or nearby a pond.

When I went for a walk looking for this yellow flower ball I found it just beside a little creek and on some of the flowers there was a little visitor, a spider. I think the spider is a raft spider (Dolomedes fimbriatus), probably a young one due to the green color of the legs.