GREAT point! Having that nice small backup lens could be a game saver! Nice suggestion.

Exquisite capture! Beautiful, with the bird and the blooms. Exposure is perfect, and seems to be a really sharp, clean image.

Hello Annie-Get-Your-Gun: Please see the reply above, and I'll try to get some more pix of the forest tomorrow. Thank you for your reply. L

Ha! I'm no scientist, but did have the benefit of my grandfather's interest in botanical things, as well as all aspects of the interrelationship of living things. He was a good, kind man. No fun losing your real parents at an early age, but a VERY lucky break to have had him take over and be my mentor. I miss him, but smile when I'm in "his" rain forest valleys.

I have lots of pictures of this unique temperate ecosystem; however, I'm not home where I can get access. Tomorrow, I will send some more and hopefully won't bore you with too many images. As far as the Moneses uniflora, I think I have a couple more old transparencies I can scan, taken with macro lens.

The succulent, spongy world of the moss forest has always filled me with delight (see my "introduce yourself" post). It is a separate realm from the rest of the rain forest that stages a certain beauty from knee-level on up to the upper canopy. But, of course, it is certainly a link to the whole of the system. This little niche of understoried groundcover is the complete thesis of what I love about the consecrated and intensely detailed floor of the forest. My first indelible memory at about the age of ten, was of the tranquility that I was given in seeing a Wood Nymph for the first time. For me, it is a symbol of peaceful intimacy - but mostly it is a symbol of mystery.

The Wood Nymph (Moneses uniflora), sometimes called "fairy nymph" locally, is a very shy plant indeed, only about two to three inches tall, and the waxy 1/2 inch petals are always pointing their faces downward towards the loam, accompanied by all manner of mutual denizens of the dark and moist basement of the rain forest. There is no match to the fun of exploring this rich beauty on hands and knees, being careful to crawl or clamber along in a way that does not crush all of these citizens of our Earth.

This image was taken almost at dusk, when there was only a small amount of light filtering through the upper forest. The small amount of available light for making a photograph was appropriate in this case, and a tripod and long exposure time enabled me to get the shot I wanted. Actually, the muted light was welcome as it epitomized, for me, the gentle complexity of this miniature domain that never really sees the full glare of sunshine, which is of course what the Wood Nymph likes.

Of course, even in this small section of forest floor, the Wood Nymph is not alone. In actuality, the biomass of organisms is among the densest on Earth per acre. In this image, there is also a small Western Hemlock seedling, various lichens, Dwarf Bramble, Deerfoot Vanillaleaf, about three species of moss, and two species of bryophytes. The rest is not identifiable in this narrow depth of field image; however, mosses alone represent about 200+ species in this rain forest milleu.

Pentax 645
Pentax-A SMC 120/4 medium format macro lens
Velvia
1/2 second and f:4

I use film more than digital, specifically my trusty old Pentax 645. I do have a good digital cam (at least good enough for me) in the Fuji X-E1 that pretty much gives me all the bells and whistles I need, including focus peaking, which I need to get any kind of good focus from the manual lenses I use. I even use the Pentax 645 lenses adapted to the Fuji-X mount, which makes a rather weird looking combination, but provides good output from the fantastic Pentax lenses. I usually take images using Fuji Provia or Velvia transparency film on the Pentax 645. Usually shoot about 50/50 RAW and JPEG with the Fuji X-E1. I've lived near the rain forests, wild beaches, and mountain meadows of the Olympic Peninsula and Olympic National Park all my life. My favorite types of trips are off-trail, and up the steep mountainside to seldom-visited cirques and basins, as well as meadowed high ridges and lakes. I'm pushing 70 years old now, but hope to get maybe 15 or more years out of hiking still. All depends on the body, of course. So far, so good. I grew up with my grandfather, who used me as a "guinea pig" to crash up those steep hillsides to hidden meadows. He took me out probably 26 weeks out of the 52 weeks in a year; even pulled me out of school to hike! Which, I didn't argue about. :-) I still have my best trips down in the riparian and green valley floors, but it's all beautiful and serene. There are many places in the off-trail Olympic Mountains that have no visible sign of man, or at least very little evidence of being tread upon. This makes for a magical and special place, and I am lucky to have been exposed at an early age to the beauty of the area. My love affair with the area will last until I take my last breath. :-)

Hello All: I am Laurence in the rainforest of the Pacific Northwest. Looking to learn and to see new visions from a lot of different photographers.