#Alison Pollack

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Physarum sp. by Alison Pollack

[sitting-on-me-bum]

Slime mold (Lamproderma)

By Alison Pollack.

Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition

[angelnumber27]

[mlleclaudine]

Alison Pollack’s preferred subjects are the tiny, inconspicuous organisms that are difficult to spot without a trained eye and microscope. The California-based photographer documents the minuscule fungi that spring from leaves and bits of bark with an extreme macro lens, exposing the rarely visible iridescent speckles, pockmarks, and feathered tissues that cover their fruiting bodies. “My goal is to reveal to people tiny mushrooms and slime molds that they might otherwise never see, or may never even have heard of,” she tells Colossal. “And also to reveal the beautiful intricate detail in these organisms.”

Although her earlier images captured the fleshy fungi in spectacular detail, Pollack has spent the last two years getting even closer to her subjects—which are often less than a millimeter tall—by using a microscope lens that magnifies her findings up to 20 times their actual size. The resulting images document even the smallest features, like individual spores, the veiny web structure encasing them, and the distinct texture and color of each organism.

Find Pollack on Instagram and Facebook to see what she spots next and to order prints of her photos. You also might enjoy this documentary about the vast underground network of mycelium that’s tied to all life on Earth.

[botnika1]

Extreme Macro Photos Unveil the Hidden World of Fungi in the Forest

Alison Pollack

[rjzimmerman]

I learned something by reading this photography journal.....there are things out there that we might consider to be mushrooms, but they are not mushrooms, they are myxomycetes. OK, so what. We don’t see them because they are tiny, but they are amazing. The photographer Alison Pollack shows us.

Excerpt from this story from Petapixel:

If you’ve ever taken a walk in the woods, especially after a rain storm, you’ve definitely walked by one of photographer Alison Pollack‘s subjects. You may have even stepped on one. But unless you had a magnifying glass handy, you never even knew they were there.

Pollack specializes in super macro photography of fungi and Myxomycetes, and her Instagram account is full of stunning photos of these minuscule mushrooms (well, sometimes mushrooms) blown up large enough so that you can see what you’re missing when you tread your way through the woods.

Pollack tells PetaPixel that she’s been exploring the forests near her home for a long time, enjoying the different aspects of nature that each season brings. She always carries some sort of camera on these walks, but it was curiosity that led her to her subject of choice.

“I started to get serious about mushroom and Myxomycete photography a couple of years ago, when I found and photographed my first Myxomycete,” Pollack tells us. “I had no idea what it was, so I looked it up online. I was immediately fascinated with the Myxomycete life cycle, and I have been avidly hunting and photographing them ever since.”

“As I looked for the tiny Myxos, I also started noticing really tiny fungi, and started photographing them as well,” continues Pollack. “These tiny organisms are all over the forest when it rains, but they are so small that people just don’t see them. My goal is to reveal their beauty and magic!”

It’s important to note that Myxos and mushrooms are not the same thing. Pollack explained that they’re in a separate biological kingdom called Protista (AKA slime molds). But no matter what you call them or whether you can tell them apart, their amazing diversity of color, shape, size, and texture makes them an ideal subject for macro and super macro photography.

A few more photos:

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Colloderma oculatum by Alison Pollack

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Physarum viride by Alison Pollack

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Hemitrichia decipiens by Alison Pollack

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Trichia botrytis by Alison Pollack

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Arcyria ferruginea by Alison Pollack

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Metatrichia vesparium amongst young Ceratiomyxa fruticulosa

by Alison Pollack

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Cribraria sp. (maybe C. piriformis)

by Alison Pollack

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Craterium roseum by Alison Pollack

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Physarum leucophaeum

by Alison Pollack

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Lamproderma pulveratum

by Alison Pollack