Chimney Lichen II
A couple of weeks ago I did a very short post of the lichen on the ceremonial chimneys in the Chinese Cemetery at Harling Point. One comment on that post was by Doug Peterson, who said “I think you can get some great close up texture shots of the sides of those Chimneys sometime”. Here you go Doug – with a few more in the can for some future date.
The texures are great, so are the colours. The top one, to me, is a lot like a sky at sunset. These shots all taken in the hour after dawn.
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Canon 5Dii, Canon 50mm/f1.4 macro, ISO500, polarizing filter. Top f16, 1/100th, hand. Middle f16, 1/60th, hand. Bottom ISO100, f16, 1/13th second, tripod.
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burnt embers 
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You are the master of textures, my friend, what a GREAT set here! I can almost feel the gritty texture of the surfaces at play here, these shots really deliver, and deliver well!
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Thank you so much Toad. Gritty is a good word for them – the lichen has a dry gritty feel, even when its wet. I’m glad you got a sense of that. More of them in the pipeline…
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Beautiful! I especially like the contrast between the organic and man-made in the second image.
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thanks xinapray – I can just imagine the freshly made chimney from a hundred years ago with smooth mortar surface, all fresh-concrete colours. I sure prefer the now compared to my imagined original.
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Very cool Ehpem! I especially like number two!
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That middle one has a slightly strange perspective – I think because of the way the chimney narrows and then flares out again. I will showing some more of those soon, without the perespective given by the sky, they are quite abstract.
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These colors are beautiful. I love the abstract quality.
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Thanks Ryan. I like the abstract aspects too – I have more that I will show in the next while. I considered doing a large post with lots of images, but decided I need to keep some in reserve in case I have another week where I can’t get out with the camera.
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Nice abstracts! Such rich texture and colour.
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Thank you Karen – these lichens have such a wonderful colour which crops up over and over at the ocean’s edge around here. On these chimneys its just more rampant than on natural surfaces. Some of the texture comes from the mortar/concrete that the lichen are growing on. I sure hope that no one gets a bright idea that they need to be freshened up with a power washer or something. It would take another 100 years to get like this.
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I find these fascinating, especially the third photo. It could be an aerial view of an autumnal forest. Gorgeous!
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Hi Katherine – you are right! I will need to explore that idea. Lichens can be great for miniature landscapes.
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I think the close up is the most satisfying of these images. The other two don’t provide enough detail due to the low resolution of web browsers — there just aren’t enough pixels to provide adequate detail for these small jewels in the plant/animal world. The colors are incredible.
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Hi Doug – thanks for your comment. It echoes my own thoughts as I was reviewing the posted images. The bottom image is taken on a tripod, and the others are hand held at not great shutter speeds, so some of the lack of detail may be slighltly blurry images. Also, the flat surfaces were directly facing the rising sun, so there is little relief from shadows – it was great for the colour, not so great for the texture. A mid-summer sunrise (can I get up that early??) would work a lot better combining colour and angle of light, though there are some higher areas at that angle which would block the earliest light. Sunset has the same problems. I was thinking that I need to get out there with my macro as well – there is a lot of tiny detail that could be really interesting to show. I expect you will see more of these.
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