Moss sporophytes

If my proverbial ship ever comes in—at this point in my dotage, I'm not holding my breath—I'm hoping it will pull into port bearing lots of great photo gear, a top-end Nikon micro lens (the 105mm would be fine) in particular. But the boat's not heading my way, so, if I want to take pictures of natural Lilliput, I'm going to have to use the ancient equipment I have at my disposal. I noticed these moss sporophytes rising out of the green carpet. The spore-bearing generation of moss plants is barely an inch high, but I always find them eye-catching mini-jewels. To capture them, I grabbed my ancient Nikon 55mm micro, a stand-out, manual-only lens that is now almost half-a-century old but, in a tribute to its manufacturer, still tack sharp... if you know how to make it work its magic. I have to shoot a lot of trial images—thank God for digital technology and the ability to delete, rather than pay for, one's many errors—but I'm patient and so I often get precisely the shot I'm after. This is it. Now, I need to work on my moss identification skills. Maybe a good personal bryologist will also be on that ship.