Posts in Category: fungi
Maine! Focus stacked fungi
One of my excuses for buying the Olympus OMD EM5Miii and the 12-45mm zoom was so that I could do focus stacked macro without taking the 100-400mm zoom off my OM-1. I have a December trip to Costa Rica that features at least 2 macro photography outings. 🙂 And I have not done much real macro while using the Sony RX10iv as it did not lend itself to really close work (and did not have in-camera focus stacking anyway). For those who do not know, focus stacking takes 8-10 exposures, automatically moving focus by a set increment, and then combines those images in the camera to produce an image that has much greater depth of field than a normal exposure…so that macro subjects in particular where depth of field is a real issue, can appear sharp from the very front to the very back. These are a few mushrooms I found along the Bridle Path in Kennebunk last week. I have a little, light weight Sirui carbon fiber tripod that I bought for this purpose exactly, and it works really well. Olympus OMD EM5Miii with the 12-45mm zoom at various focal lengths. Program mode with focus stacking. The only issue is the mosquitoes working this close to the ground for any length of time 🙂
More fascinating fungi from the pond edge
I found all of these mushrooms growing within 20 feet of Day Brook Pond in the sands of the Kennebunk Plains. I continue to be amazed at the numbers and variety of fungi I am finding this season. Top left is probably Laccaria laccata, or the “scurfy deceiver”, then possibly an Amanita, then maybe a Coltricia, and neither I or my AI assistants can come up with a likely name for the last one, but it might be some kind of “fieldcap”. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Apple Photos and assembled in FrameMagic.
Amazing Mushrooms…
It continues to be an amazing year for mushrooms and fungi. These are from the past few days on the Kennebunk Plains and our front yard. Using Google Lens, the top left might be Tiger’s Eye, no idea on the top right, then next down might be Dyer’s Polypore, left bottom is probably a Russula, next to the right might be False Death Cap, and the last one is probably another Russula. But I would not trust any mushroom ID I made, even with the help of Google Lens 🙂 I just enjoy the forms and textures and colors. Sony Rx10iv, mostly at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. Assembled in FrameMagic.
Fall fungus in the forest…
Fall has produced an abundant crop of interesting scale fungi on the fallen limbs at Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge. There is a beauty in the patterns and the shapes, at least to my eye. Sony RX10iv at 489mm equivalent. In-camera HDR. Processed in Polarr.
Fallish…
When I went out the other day to the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge headquarters trail looking for landscape photos for my “For the love of landscape” posts, I was, of course, captivated by the fall litter on the forest floor. It was a moody day, with the sun just beginning to break through clouds away off to the south. It had been raining up to an hour ago. The light in the forest was subdued, and everything was still damp. Between the light and the wet, the colors simply glowed. I framed a lot images that were simply about color and light and texture and shape. This ladder of scale fungi on the fallen birch log, and the brown maple leaf beside it is a good example. A quiet image of nothing in particular that I find still very satisfying. Sony RX10iv at 300mm equivalent. Program mode. Processed in Polarr.
November forest floor
Fungi, Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge, Wells, Maine
My wife and I took a walk around the loop trail at Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge near our home in Maine yesterday. The day was overcast, a real late November fall day…no snow yet here in Southern Maine (like most of the nation). The forest was largely bare. Even the oak leaves were all off. The fungi on fallen birches and maples showed easily with all the undergrowth died back. This found still-life was just off the trail. I like the mix of textures here, the way the wintergreen pokes out beneath the fungi, the way the small maple leaf rests, and the richness of the damp colors.
Sony RX10iii in-camera HDR. 200mm equivalent field of view. Nominal exposure: f4 @ 1/200th @ ISO 800. Processed in Snapseed on my Android tablet. Cropped for composition.
Winter hat
Fungi growing on a birch stump. Laudholm Farms, Wells Maine
I have walked right by this rather amazing cap of fungi growing on a birch stump at Laudholm Farms hundreds of times. Of course, in summer, it is somewhat hidden by the brush around the base of the tree…still I am surprised that I did not find it before this. The December light the other day helped. The low angle illuminated things not ordinarily seen. This cap is old enough to have picked up some algae. Unlike its role in lichen, with is a compound organism, I think the algae here is just in symbiotic relationship with the fungus. What caught my eye, and what is still of primary interest to me in the image, is the texture of the fungi. The tiny hair like structures on the surface caught the light and made the fungus glisten. And then there is the form of the thing. I find it fascinating.
Sony HX90V at 24mm equivalent field of view. In-camera HDR. Nominal exposure: 1/250th @ ISO 80 @ f5.6. (Program shift used to increase depth of field.). Processed in Lightroom.
Little Fall Soldier on the Forest Floor
I am always fascinated by the mushrooms of late summer and fall in our New England forests. Actually I am fascinated by mushrooms any time of year. 🙂 I found this bright specimen, which looks to me like a little soldier, along the Learning Trail at Emmon’s Preserve in Kennebunkport ME.
Samsung Smart Camera WB800F. Macro mode (28mm). f2.9 @ 1/45th @ ISO 100. Processed in Snapseed on the Nexus 7.
Fall in a ball… Old Falls on the Mousam
Though mushrooms of some kind are out pretty much all summer, I always associate the real abundance of fungi on the forest floor with fall. This emerging Fly Amanita, found along the Mousam River at OId Falls, is presented here a little over life-sized. Unlike some of its fellow deadly mushrooms, this one has always looked as poisonous as it really is to me.
The low angle shot was facilitated by the flip out LCD on the Canon SX40HS, and the close view by the 24mm macro setting plus 1.5x digital tel-converter function.
Canon SX40HS. Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation. f2.7 @ 1/30th @ ISO 500. A real forest floor exposure. I would have used the flash if I had been thinking. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness. A bit of Local Adjustment Brush to darken and soften the background slightly.
4/2/2012: False Turkey Tail and Turkey Tail Mushrooms
I mentioned in yesterday’s post that my Saturday morning photo-prowl, despite the unpromising weather and season, turned up a few good shots. For one thing I came across a pile of rotting logs beside the Kennebunk Bridle Path that were covered in interesting fungi. I have been experimenting with using the digital tel-extender function with macro at the wide end of the zoom, which gives me considerably larger than life size views. The light was actually pretty ideal for this kind of macro work…even and diffused, with very little shadow to deal with.
The first image is, after some research this morning, False Turkey Tail Mushroom. You can tell by the smooth, creamy, undersurface.
Growing right next to it…actually over one log…was a nice patch of real Turkey Tail Mushroom.
Though I did not know it until my research this morning (aimed mostly at putting a name to the mushrooms) Turkey Tail Mushroom is the center of a lot of medical research today. You can even buy Turkey Tail Mushroom extract on-line. Apparently there is evidence that compounds in the Turkey Tail kill cancer cells, or at least support the immune system in doing so, and it has been used for cancers from breast to prostrate. Interesting.
Canon SX40HS. Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation. 24mm equivalent field of view and macro…plus 2x digital tel-extender function. Both shots were from less than a centimeter away from the closest fungi. 1) f4 @ 1/80th @ ISO 200. 2) f4 @ 1/160th @ ISO 160.
And just for fun, two more shots without the dte function kicked in, which perhaps show the growth habit a bit more clearly.
