Lichens, Photography, Pastel Play.

Peter Higdon, Milton photographer, came over this afternoon for a session to photograph lichens under the microscope. Peter has been writing his "Milton Country Park through the Year" blog, a long term project to take time and explore the many facets of the landscape of our local park through the seasons. See http://a-year-in-the-park.blogspot.co.uk/

Lichens are easily overlooked, simply as encrustations on rocks or trees. However, take a closer look and they are rich in texture and structure. We spent a couple of hours on the project: First selecting which lichen and particular areas to photograph; then taking series of between 30 and 60 pictures to capture slices of focus from the lower portion of a sample to the tip of a microscopic frond; finally combining the images into focus stacks. Of the three different lichens, one was a favourite and will hopefully feature in Peter's next blog article.

Lichens are unusual organisms because they are a symbiosis of a fungus and at least one type of algae - and possibly bacteria too. They are also indicators of  environmental health with different lichens showing lesser or greater sensitivities to pollution.

This evening it was Milton Artists and Craftists time again, a great monthly activity run by Richard and Marie. We had a large attendance, dragging over an extra table to make room for late comers. Painting, drawing, colouring, making, and laughing at the adult Mermaid coloring book. My favourite page captioned "You can never finish reading a book underwater" (because it falls apart).

I'd taken a photo of a mother and child in Spain and had a bash at trying to create a pastel version. I spent most of the time on the upper detailed picture and then dashed off the picture below. Not satisfied with either. Top one - mother overworked, bottom one, baby face too fat. Well, you can only learn by making mistakes.

Little Brexit news today. More focus on President Trump as he ratchets up a stronger verbal response to Syria - and meets up with Chinese President Xi Jinping. News full of speculation. I'll await actual news tomorrow.