Captivating Fungi
Maldon forest in Autumn is one of the finest woods to take a wander in. on one of those wander days I saw these fungi ahead of me and with the light coming fro...
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Maldon forest in Autumn is one of the finest woods to take a wander in. on one of those wander days I saw these fungi ahead of me and with the light coming from the side it made for a nice picture.
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Jul, 2014Views
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Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
I regularly take walks in Maldon Forest, in Essex, UK, now "Forest" may be a wrong name for it as you can see right through it to the other side. One year I set myself a Project " Death and Rebirth in Nature" so I made weekly walks around the forest from early September to mid-December then I was stopped because an outbreak of Foot & Mouth Disease broke out and Maldon Forest was closed for a long, long time. Stopping me in my tracks so to speak.Time
So on 14 September 2008 around 10 AM I saw these fungi in the not so far distance and using my Canon 40D equipped with Sigma 70-300 f 3.5-4.5 shot at 1/200th/sec at f 5.0. This was near the end of my walk and I had put my gear away because I was on my way to my car when I stumbled upon that little gem. let's just say that was the fastest "take my gear out of my bag" everLighting
the only reason I took that shot was because the beautiful natural side lighting. Seeing how the sunlight caresses that moss and those fungi, all I needed to do was get the right distance and angle and the rest is history. It is that what pulls me into nature, the chance of finding little jewels like that and as mentioned before, I walk in that forest quite regularly, That tree trunk is now overgrow with brambles, but I'm sure that other opportunities will presents themselves, I just need to keep returning.Equipment
At that time I had A Canon 40D with Sigma 70-300 f 3.5-4.5 APO, I don't quite remember whether I had a tripod or not, my gut guess is no Tripod. Had I used a tripod the speed would have been a lot slower to allow for a higher Diaphragm, then again that would have blurred that background less resulting in a less smooth backgroundInspiration
When I saw that tree trunk with the fungi on top and how the light added an extra dimension to the shot. I first though that taking the whole tree trunk would be a good photograph. But ater walking around that trunk a few times to find a better angle, I noticed that a close-up of those fungi would look nice too, perhaps nicer than the whole trunk shot. So I went in closer, zoomed in/out to obtain the best composition and the result speaks for itself.Editing
apart from light exposure adjusting in Adobe Photoshop LightRoom, no major adjustment needed to be made.In my camera bag
A Canon 7D Mark II, A Canon EF-S 50mm f1.2, a Tamron 90mm Macro 2.8 and a Sigma 70-300 f3.5-4.5 (with a bunch of letters behind the Diaphragm settings) and on top of that my "standard" lens a Tamron 17mm - 50mm f 2.8 and lastly a Canon High Power Flash EZ 560Feedback
When at fist you don't succeed...... go back and try again. Some days it seems that I cant take good pictures at all, but when I go out next day things always look up. Look for shadows and see how they fall then look around to find a better view. Take time to compose your shot and take more than one shot, Also I always shoot Raw photos.
