"A Loop of Moss" © 2000 by Paul F. Moloney

The beautiful colors, including black and white, of nature’s flowers and plants have inspired me throughout my photography — a wonderful respite from the business of photojournalism.

Photographing plant life in the spring, summer and fall — even winter — is of principal interest. I generally make my photographs in both black and white and in color. The story I wish to tell is most important, and this dictates the medium in which I finally produce my photographs.

Each time I photograph I’m inspired by the beauty, wanting to visually describe its tale.  However, that story often must be fulfilled with word description. 

In 2000 my son, Lex, and I visited for the first time the Hoh Rain Forest in Washington’s Olympic mountains.  I was taken — even overwhelmed — by the complexity and richness of the plants, trees and fungus.  

I grew up in the arid San Luis Valley of south-central Colorado. There simplicity of elements was easy to manage at a glance.

In the Hoh Rain Forest everywhere there were complexities that obscured my vision.  I really searched to upstage nature’s virgin beauty. The highlights and shadows from the light solved the mysteries and gave me the images I sought.

"Nature's Tongue" © 2000 by Paul F. Moloney

The growth’s patterns were fascinating. By adjusting my camera position, I found the fungus “sticking its tongue out at me.” — “Nature’s Tongue”

In positioning a loop of moss in front of the dark tree trunk, I upstaged it amongst the massive disarray of plants and trees with cross light that gave me definition and excitement. — “A Loop of Moss”

The uniqueness of the Hoh Rain Forest landscape became graphic and wonderful.