A clump of moss on a rotting stump on the Juan de Fuca Trail. Canon EOS XSi EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 at 85mm f/5.6 1/60 ISO 1600

This is a very old place. You can feel it in the give in the soil under your feet, in the still air that seems to breathe in the silences, in the trees that tower over you. Everything about this place speaks to the life that has struggled and lived and grown here for thousands of years. It is a cathedral without walls that honors the creative spirit and that breathed life into the dust.

Every time I hike the Juan de Fuca trail I watch out for and photograph interesting fungi. My daughter and I were hiking it a couple of years ago and we came across something I had never seen before, a fungus completely covered in moss. It was really quite beautiful. I opened up the lens to 5.6 mostly because the light was so dim under the rainforest canopy but it ended up giving me beautiful bokeh in the background. Bokeh is the term used to describe the soft out of focus circles in the background. The tone of the light is very soft and leaf filtered and I was happy with how those elements came together.