Growing Mushrooms

I've been exploring the woods in the rain this week, thank goodness for durable cameras. I noticed mushrooms everywhere and decided to try time-lapse again.  Last summer I made my first attempt at mushroom time-lapse and and was not happy with the results. This year I made a few minor adjustments: placing the Go Pro further away from the subject and recording bigger mushrooms being the main adjustments.

Technical: Go Pro @ 1 minute intervals, about 8 1/2 hours duration. Sequenced in LRTimelapse

The End of Color

It's about gone, only tiny pockets of color remain. I've often thought November is the toughest month to reveal in a photograph. The difference between March and November can be subtle. Crisp leaves and intact puffballs are one of the few indications of the end of autumn. If you can find some color to photograph, go for it. You won't see it again for a few months.

Technical: recorded a couple weeks ago. Off camera lighting, converted to black and white in Silver Efex Pro

Recording Growth

I am intrigued with the possibility of recording change on video and an attachment to a GoPro 4 seems like just the ticket. GoPro cameras are small,waterproof,  but have a fixed 16 mm (35 mm equivalent) lens. They are also limited by a 2 hour battery life.  The Blink intervalometer shuts the camera down when not exposing and image thereby significantly increasing the battery life. If you have a GoPro and want to play with this possibility check out: Blink Intervalometer

Technical: Recorded over two days for a total of 18 hours. Images recorded at 1 minute intervals, 16 second video from 18 hours of change.

Small subject, small camera

I was walking with my iPhone and saw this bright color on a log covered with green moss.  It was a perfect opportunity to test a close up lens attachment. The depth of field cannot be controlled but the focus locked nicely on the leading edge of the mushroom.

Technical: iphone6, iProLens macro lens, Procamera 8 used which allows white balance adjustment.

Thinking Christmas

Red and green must mean Christmas is coming, right? These guys were a welcome sight on a recent walk through the woods. I came across a stump covered with them and after an hour of shooting realized the best shot was from below with the background blurred. A little slow on creativity on that day.

November Lines

To the mycologist this is an image of fungi. To the logger it is the memory of harvest. To the mushroom it's home. To the photographer it could be about contrasting textures. To me it's about contrasting lines in the wood and the mushrooms. Lines in the mushroom stem are reaching to the almost horizontal lines of the edges of the caps. Then there are the diagonal lines hovering on top of the mushrooms to complete the frame around the mushrooms.

Autumn Story

Most of us view autumn as the end of growth and the beginning of winter when plants hold there breath until spring. That's the main event but fungi are coming out of fallen logs and stumps, experiencing a growth spurt in the waning warm months of the year.