Some fungi are hallucinogenic and people are often seen foraging for them up our way, however, fungi can be tricky to identify correctly. Some are very similar looking but can cause kidney or liver failure and DEATH!
Personally, I quite enjoy living and it’s simply not worth the risk.
I do however love nothing better than wandering down to the local creek after a few days of good rain, camera in hand and seeing what pops up in the moist undergrowth – like this unusual triple stacked fungi on a mossy log.
I only had and hour on Friday to scramble down into the ditch and literally get my feet wet – this beautiful fresh red one was low down in the creek, pushing soil up near the water’s edge.
There appears to be a delicate spider zip line from this small moist cap.
I’ve been trying to improve my macro photography technique.
When using the Olympus focus stacking feature – which takes 8 images and combines them for a larger depth of field, it’s almost impossible to keep the camera still on the soft mossy surface, often resulting in duplicated edges or some sections out of focus.
For single images, I have long used a two second delay instead of pressing the shutter button to avoid shake, but that doesn’t work in stacking mode. I tried tethering my phone via WiFi and using the OI.Share app, but that won’t remotely take images when stacking either. So far the best solution is to lightly press the LCD screen where I want it to focus, but it’s still not ideal so I may have to invest in a remote shutter release.
Note the absolute tiny new fungi sprouting out of the wood – you can click on the images and zoom in.
Due to camera movement, the image above was manually stacked in Photoshop, using only some frames from two different image stacks to get everything I wanted reasonably sharp. I almost didn’t bother editing this one!
I only used 3 images in Photoshop from a stack for this one as the depth of field was too large and the camera moved while balanced awkwardly on the log. In most instances, it’s just too cumbersome to get a tripod in the correct position for the composition I’m after and I use the small plate I made.
I noticed this vine winding it’s way around the host’s trunk.
The camera was held against the tree for this one – I probably should have changed lenses but time was running out!
And one last fungi before I hit the road.
All of these images were naturally lit with very little colour post processing.
I have switched to using Vivid picture mode in camera and edited these from jpeg with smart sharpen, adjusted levels and minimal dodge and burn.
TasView 