Trees – Page 15 – Michael Stephen Wills Photography

A Turkey Tail?

Bracket Fungus

January 18, 2023December 2, 2022 MichaelStephenWills7 Comments

Trametes versicolor – also known as Coriolus versicolor and Polyporus versicolor – is a common polypore mushroom found throughout the world.

Meaning ‘of several colors’, versicolor reliably describes this fungus that displays a variety of colors. For example, because its shape and multiple colors are similar to those of a wild turkey, T. versicolor is commonly called turkey tail.

Found on a rotting Hemlock stump, Fillmore Glen State Park Moravia, Cayuga County, New York.

Kodak DSC Pro SLR/c with a Canon EF 100 mm f/2.8 Macro USM lens stabilized on a Manfrotto 468MG tripod with Hydrostatic Ball Head

Polypores are a group of fungi that form large fruiting bodies with pores or tubes on the underside (see Delimitation for exceptions). They are a morphological group of basidiomycetes-like gilled mushrooms and hydnoid fungi, and not all polypores are closely related to each other.

Polypores are also called bracket fungi or shelf fungi, and they characteristically produce woody, shelf- or bracket-shaped or occasionally circular fruiting bodies that are called conks.

Sony alpha 700, Sony Lens DT 18-200mm F3.5-6.3 stabilized on a Manfrotto 468MG tripod with Hydrostatic Ball Head

Most polypores inhabit tree trunks or branches consuming the wood, but some soil-inhabiting species form mycorrhiza with trees. Polypores and the related corticioid fungi are the most important agents of wood decay, playing a very significant role in nutrient cycling and aiding carbon dioxide absorption by forest ecosystems.

Sony DSC F828 stabilized on a Manfrotto 468MG tripod with Hydrostatic Ball Head

Reference: “Trametes versicolor” on Wikipedia

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Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Revealed Form IV

Hoary Elm in HDR

January 16, 2023November 30, 2022 MichaelStephenWills5 Comments

Late Winter, on the cusp of Spring, I arrived at the Cornell Experimental farm before sunrise.

There I set up a Kodak DSC Pro SLR/c with a Canon EF 50 mm f/1.4 USM lens all mounted on a very stable Manfrotto Studio Aluminum Tripod Model 475 and Hydrostatic Ball Head. From this 15 exposures were obtained. Photoshop CS6 HDR combined the 15 into this perfected image. Cornell Thompson Experimental Farm, Town of Dryden, Tompkins County, New York

Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Revealed Form III

January 15, 2023November 30, 2022 MichaelStephenWills4 Comments

On a late winter morning on the cusp of Spring 2007 I ventured from my home on Fall Creek on a photo expedition.

Form here is revealed through the fine snowfall dusting the evergreen boughs of this stand of pines, not enough to stop the wind for which is tract of the Cornell Thompson Research Farm is known.

Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Revealed Form II

January 14, 2023November 29, 2022 MichaelStephenWills4 Comments

On the first day of 2006 I ventured from my home on Fall Creek on a photo expedition.

A finely shaped maple tree growing alone on a Cornell Experimental Farm field at the intersection of Fall Creek Road and Cady Lane, between Fall and Mud Creeks. Town of Dryden, Tompkins County, New York

Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Revealed Form I

January 13, 2023November 29, 2022 MichaelStephenWills2 Comments

On the first day of 2006 I ventured from my home on Fall Creek on a photo expedition.

Each November, the eerie form of these limbs are revealed. I call the tree an “elm” though I am not certain. There are other lone survivor elms nearby, the leaves are right for an elm. Some elm species/specimens have the same shape.

Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Big Bend

A tripod and Neutral Density filter

January 9, 2023November 27, 2022 MichaelStephenWills7 Comments

Winter 2020 I posted “Winter People Watching” featuring the Sony F828 and candid street photography.

What I love about this place, a unique feature, is the size and different vantage points making it possible to view the same place from different angles. November 2019, readers were shown “The Bend,” a place with Taughannock gorge makes a 90 degree turn, changing from a southeastern to an eastern flow. Here are photographs from spot overlooked by that post.

Here the camera faces away from the sun, the graduated neutral density filter allowing me to capture the cloudless blue sky, a little milky the way it is here February with a hint of spring.

The gorge makes a 90 degree turn, changing from a southeastern to an eastern flow. Here is am in the creek bed facing east.

This little one is studying the information placard with rapt attention, learning how the African continent, pushing against North America, across the eaons, formed the right angle fractures mirrored by this dramatic change in Taughannock Gorge. For the Big Bend photographs I was standing behind them, along the stream bed.

Here is a broader slice of that sky.

Can you see the tiny figures of hikers, dwarfed by the frozen cliff?

Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

A Little Water Fall…

…and Gorge Cliffs

January 8, 2023November 27, 2022 MichaelStephenWills6 Comments

Purling of the water beneath this foot high waterfall was enhanced by reducing ISO to 100, tamping down the aperture to f/22 resulting in an shutter speed of 1/10th second. I set the graduated Neutral Density filter to shade the left side.

On the cliffs ahead is where the observation platform is cut into the rock. It has a great view of the waterfall, in some ways the experience of the falls is enhanced, compared to hiking the 3/4 mile path and standing below.

The Gorge Walls, hundreds of feet above the creek are very dangerous to stand below.

A marvelous forest grows on talus from the high gorge walls.

A sign on a disused pier warns waders to leave the creek bed. Ahead the gorge walls tower above the creek. Rocks dislodge and crash down unexpectedly, crushing foolish waders. It is appalling to see, in warmer months, people walking below those cliffs gathering the fallen rocks to make delicately balanced cairns.

Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Lighthouse Point 5

Sundry elements

December 30, 2022November 26, 2022 MichaelStephenWills2 Comments

Uncategorized details from our Lighthouse Point adventures.

Seen from a resting place, a bench just off the trail and before the causeway.

A humble and fertile weed.

On a bright early November day Pam and I walked to Lighthouse Point. Ithaca, Tompkins County, New York

Before the parade of mast-like iron poles was this wooden one where it was apparent there could be no light on the white tower without power.

On top and under the surface

Look closely, children

A demon greeting

Lighthouse Point 4

The Views are the Reward

December 29, 2022November 25, 2022 MichaelStephenWills3 Comments

Here is the south end of Cayuga Lake on a bright November afternoon. Stewart Park is enjoyed by Ithacans year round.

Everyone is a fan of the Willows framing the lake views.

Can’t get enough of Stewart Park..

An unzoomed view, to give an idea of the distance across the water.

Pam and I have great memories of sailing this stretch from our years of membership in Cornell Family Sailing.

The east lake shore.

The West Lake Shore. This photograph captures the electric line that powers the Red Tower light. Seagulls enjoy that causeway…I’ve never seen humans walk it.