Little Blue Beauties …

So, where were we … Oh, that’s right, I was teasing you. These little guys like hiding in the dark, lets see if we can’t find some to come out and play.

My mate Ev came with me today. Getting impatient, he said “why do you take so many photos?”
I heard him but didn’t really answer him properly, I was in a different head space and it’s hard to explain. But here goes …

It’s free for one, once you have the gear. It only costs me some time, and in that time, it’s like I lose all sense of being human. My mind escapes my body. For me, I guess it’s the best from of meditation. I’m completely focused (no pun intended) on light, detail, composition, reflections, highlights, capturing the “perfect” image. Nothing else matters. The camera is like an extension of my arm and mind, it’s not a tool to me at that point. I feel I’ve yet to capture that “perfect” image and don’t think I’ll ever obtain it, but every press, I aim to improve on the last one. Like an impossible challenge. A constant strive to improve and I hope you can see that passion through the history of my blog.

These little fungi will only last around 3 days, but only be at their BEST for one, so I take as many photos as time permits, or I’m satisfied and move on. I’m also taking in, kind of subconsciously, everything around me. What’s under my feet, my knee getting wet as I kneel, my hands getting cold using the dials and moving the tripod, the moisture in my cold breath, the smell of the earth and forest, the glint of sunlight coming through the trees, noises of birds and wind in the treetops. I want all that to show through my photos. Impossible, but that’s what I strive for.

This older ratty white fungi above to the left, was what I first saw that put me onto this little patch of Mycena Interrupta. To the right of it, is two tiny new ones forming, which will be like the small ones below in a day, and the larger one the next day, then they start to fade and are past their best.

I was lucky with these little clusters sitting on top of a log, with good access both sides and plenty of room to maneuver the tripod around to get the best angles. I’ve never seen so many grouped together like this before and at varying stages of growth, so, I was thrilled! You can see the tree canopy overhead reflected in the moisture on the cap in the shot below!

In two days, when I downloaded from the memory card, I had around 2,800 image files! Crazy right, but I’m saving RAW and Jpeg files so that’s 1,400 images, it still sounds like a lot.
But, each image is focus stacked using 15 images, to create a single (16th) final image. So, I’ve taken about 90 photos over two days or 45 photos per day – and that includes other fungi too. Of those I pick the best for editing and then cull further for publishing. I don’t think that is an unreasonable amount – and who cares! lol.

The shot below was taken on my phone while capturing the image above! The fungi appear out of focus on the camera screen – only the area at the front edge of the closest fungi [there’s a little square on the focus point] and the front of the log are in focus as that is just one frame from the stack of 15 images. And yes, my camera gets pretty grubby in the mud, but it’s a weather sealed Olympus!

Anyway, that’s it for now, there is more to come, but I’m having dinner with the Governor of Tasmania tonight at Government House (I scheduled this post last night) so it may be a few days before the next post 😀

Cheers, and thanks for visiting. Don’t be afraid to be you.