The island isn’t that big, less than 1000 acres, but you can lose yourself a bit and get away from the sounds of humanity, especially separated from the camping area which is confined to one side. Not even bicycles are allowed on the island, but the staff does use ATVs to get around which, unfortunately, chew up the trails some. With my newly repaired Olympus 90mm macro, I got a few funny looks while photographing very small things.
Well, some not so very small –
That is the same kind of spider as on my dock I think. She was about 2 inches with the legs, a bit smaller than I’ve seen, but still big enough. This was as close as I got before she scurried for cover.
Lucky for me there was some mushroom action going on. And that there aren’t any, or many biting bugs like mosquitoes and flies. Wow. I wish all of Wisconsin was like that!
These bright orange beauties always catch my attention and they’re so beautiful that I have to climb over or under just about any obstacle to capture them. In processing though, I find it takes a lot of tweaking to get the color right. It tends to be over-saturated and the wrong hue in camera. I think it struggles with the white balance, so I have to fix it.
And sometimes I’m so focused on the main subject, that I don’t notice I’m being photo-bombed!
Even with 6 mushroom ID books at home, I sometimes can’t figure out what I have. I need to take more shots of them from different angles, even if it’s only for ID purposes. Sometimes the arty side just occupies the whole of my thoughts.
This one I think I have identified although it is late. Normally this mushroom fruits when it’s quite cold out…through the late fall and winter months. Here it is in June! It was way up on a very large tree that came down a long time ago. I could get the lens right under it and the light through the canopy was just so silky.
Even though it’s a small island, there are quite a few micro-environments around like this amazing and slightly eerie white cedar forest. Even in the bright sun, the tight weave of the branches overhead blocks out so much light.
While I’m not sure I’ll get there again, I’m glad I got to experience the solitude and quiet of this lovely Wisconsin park.
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