Topic: Troll's Forest

[Kai-san]

A few years ago I inherited a small farm in northern Norway. I usually spend a large part of my holidays there and this year was no exception. On this farm there is a piece of woodland that has been left to it's own devices for the last twenty years or so. The trees are covered in moss and lichen and there are a lot of windfalls. One can imagine that woods like this has played a part in the origins of the stories about trolls and other nasty creatures. I spent quite a few hours (and films) this summer trying to catch the 'soul' of this place and here is the result. Cameras used are Contax 645 and Contax RX with various Zeiss lenses. For film I used Fujichrome RTPII 64T with 85B filter and Fuji Natura 1600.

[Kai-san]

More...

[Kai-san]

Last five.

[jharr]

What a wonderful place. I love the forest. I especially like #7 (is that a blurry red mushroom I see?) and #9 and #11. Great job with all of these. Thanks for sharing.

[Kai-san]

Thanks James. That is indeed a red fly agaric or fly amanita you have spotted. It's poisonous but probably not lethal. The hallucinogenic effects are well known and there has been some speculation that the vikings ingested it before going berserk. 
I've only got a B&W shot of it, so you have to imagine the colour.........

[Late Developer]

Really like this set - particularly the first one of the second series of five...

I must find some time to spend in a forest.  Magical places....

[Bryan]

Great essay Kai, it looks a lot like the woods where I live.  When I was a teenager there were woods we called Knome Land.  We would go there to smoke weed and trip out on the trees and knomes and such. 

A friend.just took a class on mushrooms and we were talking about the fly agaric mushroom.  It's so potent that it can kill you.  Some indigenous tribe would feed them to elk then drink the urin to get high.  Seems quite a disgusting way to get high, I don't think I'll be trying that.  I think it would be quite difficult to get an elk to cooperate and dealing with a stoned elk seems like it would pose some problems. 

[Kai-san]

Thanks LD and Bryan! That elk recipe didn't sound too good, Bryan.    According to Wikipedia the fly agaric is eaten in several countries, but only after parboiling.
The most dangerous inhabitants of these woods are tiny black ticks (castor bean tick) that suck your blood and may infect you with some nasty diseases like encephalitis and lyme disease. I usually had four or five of those blind passengers after every trip, but it's ok if you remove them within the first few hours.

[jojonas~]

nice set, Kai! I'm particularly liking the darker ones where you also can see a hint of sky through the branches.

[Kai-san]

Thanks Jonas! This is not a large forest, but still it can get really dark in there. Some of these shots are underexposed and that is a result of shooting handheld with 32 ISO effective. I'll have to bring a tripod next year. 

[chris667]

Magical place. I visit one near me every day; I love the way a forest changes throughout the year. How lucky to own one!

Great photos too.

[Kai-san]

Thanks Chris! For now I can only spend my summer holidays up there, but when I retire I will try to do some shooting during the other seasons as well.