Moss and Ferns

I've been walking the Bruce Trail recently, trying to find different species of ferns, and at the same time becoming more familiar with those properties that the Bruce Trail Conservancy actually owns and manages. At the same time I'm practising going beyond the 'auto' setting on my camera, to get the right exposure, often in dim lighting conditions.

These moss-covered boulders along the trail looked almost black in a picture taken on the automatic setting, because of the dim light.

To get these shots, where it was quite dark under the tree canopy, I had to adjust the ISO settings to a high level, making the camera more sensitive to the actual light that was available. I also had to over-expose the shot deliberately to get the exposure I wanted. It took several shots to get it right, but this is much better than the typical dark shot I would get under automatic settings.

The shots below were taken with similar settings on the camera. The danger is that if natural lighting is too dim, you can't get enough exposure without using a very slow shutter speed, and you risk the picture being blurry.

Maidenhair Spleenwort, a tiny little fern growing directly out of the vertical moss-covered limestone rock in a crevice along the edge of the escarpment.

The rare Hart's Tongue Fern, growing in a dimly lit corner of the woods; over-exposed, the picture looks quite good.