The Fungi Around Us
Sometimes you need to look down to get an interesting composition
Sometimes you need to look down to get an interesting composition
It was on one of Liddy and my daily walks in the woods around Waldmohr. I had taken my 100–500 lens hoping to capture some of the woodpeckers I saw the day before. It was a blustery day which meant that the birds had taken to roost where they would be safe.
As we were on the home stretch, I saw a number of these stumps festooned with fungi.
I like the color, and I like the texture presented by the underside of these mushrooms. The fact that I had only had my long lens gave me only a momentary pause. I backed up enough to get the mushrooms in focus and took this and a few other shots.
Later, with the images imported to lightroom, I experimented with a number of crops to achieve what I had been thinking when I released the shutter. Here is my result:
To get here, I took the raw image into Topaz Photo AI. This was to one: sharpen and bring out the ridges on the underside of the mushrooms and two: upsize the image by two times as the crop I planned would be quite severe.
There is some slight glare from the topside of some mushrooms that a polarizer might have removed, but I didn’t have one at the time, and I’m not put off by it.
For those who care: Canon R6 with Canon RF100–500 mm f/4.5–7.1 L IS USM; 1/800 sec f/5.6; ISO 10,000; Focal Length 145 mm. Handheld.
I like what I was able to achieve here by being able to improvise the situation and get an interesting shot. By cropping in close all of the distractions in the background were removed — Photography is simplification.
Well, I must go. Liddy is impatient to be out for today’s walk in the woods. Let’s see what we can bring home.