Category Archives: Exploring

March 21, 2023 Intermittent Storms

Orange Bloom. March 2023

Be careful what you wish for.

My guilty pleasure is driving in hazardous conditions, and my favorite feeling is being inside a sealed car while driving in a torrential downpour. 

My goal was to get to Tejon Pass northbound rest area for the night. I managed to escape the storm in Arizona. Little did I know what I was about to experience. As I left Indio, California at sunset, I noticed encompassing dark clouds to the north. The sun just set and I had about a 3 hour drive ahead of me. As I entered San Bernardino County, it began to rain. The wind picked up and the storm became fierce, lowering visibility and flooding the roadway. I had no choice but to lower my speed to 50 mph, extending my travel time. Live traffic conditions were turning for the worst. Several intermittent storms were wreaking havoc, causing accidents and slowdowns. I managed to get through the first storm, but had a building concern that it wasn’t over. While on the 210 freeway, I entered another storm. This one got me on the edge of my seat. My windshield wipers were on max, and I still couldn’t see ahead of me. As I drove underneath an overpass, I hit a large pool of water, and my windshield was blanked out for a full second. I couldn’t see a thing. I was literally scared to drive any further. 

Be careful what you wish for, because you might get it, and you may not want it anymore, but it’s too late. 

January 16, 2023 It’s Lunch Time!

Death Cap (Amanita phalloides)

I am now officially certified as a PMP (Professional Mushroom Photographer).

Don’t mind me. I’m just sitting on a log eating my cold sandwich while watching this banana slug devour a mushroom. 

Mmmm… yummy Russula 😋 

March 22, 2021 Hello, Old Friend

I managed to squeezed in a good 4 hours of sleep despite trying to discern the decibels of the wind gusts and determine if it was going to die down. Around 1:30am, the wind finally stopped. The moon was setting, excitement ensued. I tried sleeping for another 2 hours, but was wide awake by 3 am.

I swiftly got out of my sleeping bag and slipped on my winter jacket. There it was, the arc of the Milky Way. Hello, old friend. I’ve missed you. It was amazing stillness again, nothing but a dove’s call and not a hint of wind. I set up my camera and stared above at the vast expanse of stars, again proving my insignificance in this universe.

The forecast showed a low of 37F, which I didn’t think was too bad. It was actually 32F. My star tracker kept showing the low battery icon despite a full charge. My external battery had probably less than 10% so it was a miracle it lasted right up until the crack of dawn. By then my body was at the point of uncontrolled shivers. I finished the last exposures, quickly jumped back into the car and tossed both blankets over myself. I awoke at 6:53am, a minute after sunrise, to the first light on the Sierra and Mt Whitney through my windshield. What a feeling.

This trip embodied my philosophies to photography and life: no expectations, in search of novelty, it’s all about the shot, its all about the shot, and convenience isn’t free. It felt amazing to disconnect and just observe the world in front of you. Driving on new roads again shows how much of my own state I haven’t even explored yet. Now the only thing I can think about is when to go back.

The same feeling of excitement from the week before was still going strong in me. 1200 miles later, I’m still holding on to that feeling.

March 7, 2021 There it is!

Parrot Waxcap (Gliophorus psittacinus)

With what may be the last rain for the winter, I thought I wouldn’t be able to find the parrot waxcap this season. When I first started taking photos of mushrooms this year, I was immediately jealous of this shot by WildMacro. He mentioned it took 3 years to find it. It’s elusive nature definitely did not get my hopes up of finding it especially for an amateur like me. Despite persistent searching up and down the coast the past two months, I didn’t find it, until today. 

Like I tell myself every weekend, I had a choice, stay comfortably at home, or go somewhere. Again, the uncertainty was killing me. Were there going to be mushrooms 24 hours after a decent rain? Did it rain enough? Oh great, a frost advisory. That’s not good. How far should I drive? Being an optimizer, I always have a hard time committing to a location; the paradox of choice. I narrowed my choices down to two, shut down the computer and used my intuition. 

The ground was definitely wet with damp moss redwood duff. It felt very “mushroomy”, just like how a beach would feel “fishy”. I found a few wax caps early on, one had almost a greenish cap. Could this be a parrot? How am I supposed to find a green mushroom in a forest of green? It was a needle in a haystack, only the needle is the same color as the hay. The others around were more yellow and brown, keep looking. A feeling of excitement came to me as that was the closest I’ve been to finding the mushroom. Two hours in, I didn’t find much other than some nice golden waxcaps and purple Mycena that was past its prime. As I approached a bridge to the waterfall connector trail, I spotted in the corner of my eye, a round, slimy, green colored mushroom. There it is! With mushrooms, you find one and suddenly you discover a whole cluster. I lost track of time as I spent the next hour cleaning and photographing the parrots, at times I simply just stared at it. It was really that green, nothing like I’ve seen before. 

With fishing, you never know if one more cast will be the one. With mushrooming, you never know if 10 more steps will uncover something. That’s what keeps me excited, the unknown, the suspense, the chance you may discover something totally unexpectedly. 

Lilac Bonnet (Mycena pura)

Alpine Jelly Cone (Guepiniopsis alpina)

Boulder Fall. March 2021