When you walk in a forest, everything just changes. The sounds, the smells, the atmosphere clinging to your skin; you know you just entered a sacred space. These places are getting harder to find by the day, with the climate changing and people destroying them for agricultural and other reasons. Walking in these places might thus be seen as a last live link to our past, or so I believe. In these places, you will find so many magical things, especially lichen, moss, mushrooms and the strangest flowers.

I always bend down to look at things when I hike, to the frustration of the others in the group who do not care much about the smaller things in life. Being in the forest transforms me into another person. I want to smell everything, I want to see everything, I just want to be a part of the very forest floor itself.

I will share with you a video at the end of this post in which you can just embrace the forest sounds with me. The cicadas were out, and they were so loud that some of us actually got headaches from it.

In any case, I took some photographs of various moss formations, lichen hanging from trees, random mushrooms I could find, and some strange flowers blooming and growing from strange places. These photographs do not do any justice to the amazing presence I felt in the forest. I wish I could do it more justice. Maybe a proper macro lens would have done it. But these couple of photographs from one of our hikes symbolises the general ambience, or atmosphere, of this incredibly beautiful place.

I hope that you enjoy these photographs.

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A Mossy Adventure

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Postscriptum, or Historical-Photographers

We are taking photographs of history, on a daily basis by now. What has been will pass, and it will never be again. The extinction of so many species, and the radical change in our world(s). Tomorrow, things will be different. I remember coming across an old photo album of a friend. In this album were photographs from the 1970s or so. The town she lived in was the same one we are currently living in, but things have changed so much in so little time that it looks like a completely different town, even country.

We are taking photographs on a daily and constant basis. We are posting it on every social media platform. We are currently taking photographs of places that might not be here tomorrow, we are taking photographs of animals that might soon go extinct. The forest is a prime example of this. As I walked in the forest, taking photographs of everything, I could not help but think about the fact that this might be here when I come back. Agricultural lands are growing, people are destroying all of "untouched and wild nature" to farm produce, to let livestock graze.

But I am trying to stay positive, I am trying to think about life going on as it has been carrying on for so many years.

Life is beautiful and strong.

Here is a short video I took of me walking into one of the forests. The sounds of the cicadas shouting are beautiful in their poetic simplicity. Please enjoy it:

The sounds are beautiful.

In any case, with the end of the year almost at its peak, tumbling into the new youthful year, I hope that you will get the photographs of your dreams, and that you will have a fantastic new year.

For now, happy photographing, and keep well.

All of the photographs are my own, taken with my Nikon D300 and 50mm Nikkor lens. The writings and musings are also my own, albeit inspired by the beautiful surrounding area.