~ Covid Sucks ~

It's been a while since i last posted (just when i was planning to post more regularly)! I missed a solid week of curation and participation here on Hive due to Covid.

I got Covid last December and should probably tell that story sometime... but not in this post. That was only brought up to make a comparison and this round was worse than the first time i got it.

_{It be that way sometimes...}

I have been pretty sick for a couple of weeks and therefore have been just getting by doing the minimum to keep things running in all the communities i manage. I felt so bad i didn't even get online to even use up my upvoting power.

I'm feeling much better now and things are getting back to normal. I went for a walk today and got some decent shots. It's the first time since i have been here that the mushrooms were so abundantly available to shoot.

However, you did have to look a little and actually pay attention to the surroundings. If you notice, these first shots have dew on the grass in many of the shots. They blend in quite well and weren't in such abundance that you don't have to even look. But honestly, i didn't have to look that hard.

One of my favorite aspects of shooting macro and mushrooms and flowers etc. is that when i go to edit the photos there is so much more content in the composition than i initially realized.

Some good shots become great ones just by chance. That's the lottery of photography and the odds are always in your favor when you exercise time and chance tempered with a bit of patience.

_{Power Up}

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~ Forest & Fungi ~

We have a lake near by and sometimes that is where i go to take my mushroom shots. All the shots so far and a few more to come are all on the way to the lake and the surrounding forests.

The Fly Agaric is one of my favorite mushrooms. I can't help but to shoot it each time i come across one. Even if they are generic or lacking color or in poor shape, i always find myself shooting them if i have a camera handy.

Many of them that i caught on this walk were in the early stages and just expanding the caps. So, the white chunks were more chunky than usual and the red flesh hadn't fully unfurled yet.

The Summer here in Sweden was pretty hot and it rained a lot... but it's still dry here. So, it's been a weird year for the plant life and fungi in particular. It's starting to get cold and the light is dwindling day by day.

I am not an expert on the plant life here or an expert on the Swedish biosphere... but i can say i was surprised to see as many mushrooms as i did today. Last time i went out (which was more favorable conditions for mushrooms) i saw nothing at all.

_{Don't Hassle The Hoff}
That's when you gotta just keep on keepin' on!

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~ Södra Bergundasjön ~

This is the lake. There is a boat dock at the entrance of the lake trail. I have shared shots of this place for many years at this point. If you take a right on the trail and go on just a ways there is a spot you can stop to rest and take a seat. There are some giant stones in the distance protruding above the surface of the water. There are usually some cool birds chilling on the rocks. This isn't a great shot but you can zoom in a bit if you want.

My camera isn't very good at zooming and focusing at the same time. hahaha I had about 3 more shots of the bird on the rock but i was reluctant enough to share even these two landscape lake shots. The other bird photos were poor quality in my opinion.

I did manage to get some good macro shots in this trip. The morning light filtered through the forest canopy made for some intersting shots. Some of these aren't even edited at all to increase color or contrast or even adjust the lighting. I was pretty proud of a few of these images.

I would be curious to hear which photo is your favorite and why in the comments. I will probably upvote the better responses to this answering of my curiosity in the comments with some fat upvotes.

Another cool thing about many of my photos in this post is the size of the imagery. Like, the flower below is smaller than my pinky fingernail. It looks larger in size in the photos... but that's macrophotography.

The truth is... these things are much smaller in person than they appear in these images.

These star-shaped flowers have tiny little star-shaped pistols! I didn't see that shooting but i did notice it when editing. These are like flowers within flowers and they are smaller than 5cm. That's crazy to me...

The pinkish-purple color of the petals was one thing i wanted to capture and portray... but it was also the sparkle of the petals that i wanted to share.

_{Walk This Way}

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~ Moss is Boss ~

Here in Sweden, there is a lot of moss. I love moss. When i was a young child... one of my favorite action figures was the villian Moss Man from He-Man. He had a fuzzy tactile element to his figure. To reenforce that he was made of moss they put green fuzz on him. I loved to rub the fuzz when i was a kid.

_{Moss Man}

My dad bought me that action figure and to this very day... even though he is no longer with us, when i see moss, i think of Moss Man and my dad.

I have to admit i got some badass shots of the moss today. Usually, i don't do them enough justice to share in a post.

But, i would say today was the exception. The light was good and my camera decided to work with me. Sometimes the leaves in the canopy of the trees filters the light too far into the green and it affects the green saturation of the moss. My camera isn't good enough sometimes to differentiate but today i got lucky in a few shots.

_Phallic

The irony is that in these phallic shots below, this mushroom head is growing out of the tree. So, it's like a woody growing out of the wood. Maybe, (probably) i'm just super weird.

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~ Beauty ~

Since this post was getting long and there were many more shots to share i thought i would skip to the beauty. I particularly loved the nexxt few shots.

Those purple mushrooms always impress me! Even the dead leaves look fuzzy!

These always make me think of the turle-shelled characters on Super Mario Brothers.

They also make me think of buns. Honey buns, hamburger buns... i don't know?!

I really enjoy the colors and textures this moss and fungi have to share with us. The beauty is quite captivating!

_Truly

Since i usually make my posts too long... and this one is no exception... i figured this would be a good place to stop for now.

I appreciate you all taking the time to stop by and check out my photos. I also thank those that read the words too! I will share the rest of the shots later. Y'all take care and....

Thanks For Joining Me Today