Jelly ear fungi Auricularia auricula-judae is fairly common in the UK. It is usually found in clusters, drooping from dead and dying branches, mainly of elder but sometimes on other types of hardwood, particularly beech, sycamore and ash. It likes damp, shady conditions. When Jelly ears first appear are at first cup-shaped, developing lobes that make them look uncannily like human ears. Tan-brown and velvety on the outside, with a wrinkled, shiny inner surface. Individual lobes can grow to 3-10cm across. These ‘ears’ have rubbery, gelatinous flesh.
For thirty years, John has ventured across the world returning with stories of his experiences of the wilderness which few have encountered. He has drunk tea with Thangboche’s High Lama in the Kumbu, collected shells from Pacific beaches, run with wilderbeests in the ancient dusts of Serengeti, hiked to hidden springs of Grand Canyon, encountered walrus’, wolves and streams of caribou in the low islands of Aleutian Alaska. His travels are infused with adventure and wonderment, from Galapagos to the Andes, Namibia, Mongolia and the Amazon Basin. Closer to home, John has photographed almost all wild land locations in Britain, from the windswept tors of Cornwall to white strands of the Outer Hebrides.
As a photographer of wilderness it is the drama of landscape, its biodiversity and wild weather that attracts him most. Major expeditions including seven months spent in Antarctica, a winter in Spitzbergen and an historic four hundred mile traverse of the Greenland Icecap, John's assignments have taken him to some of the wildest lands on Earth.
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