The many moods of mushrooms

Earlier this year I mentioned that there weren’t many mushrooms fruiting compared to previous years. It wasn’t just in one place; it was everywhere. Although there wasn’t an abundance, I still stopped to capture some of them and in processing I noticed that I vary my techniques a lot when it comes to mushroom pictures. In different kinds of landscapes or abandonment shots, I have my preferences, but ‘shrooms have too many moods. Here’s a few that caught my attention –

I almost didn’t process this next one even though I spent quite some time in the field getting just the right shot (cleaning up the scene, changing lenses, moving the tripod around, etc.). It wasn’t doing anything for me after fooling around with it in Lightroom. It was a dramatic little vignette and that wasn’t coming across. Sometimes when that happens I see if a preset or some kind of semi-extreme processing can save it. Because this is such a simple and strong image, it did. Not everything I shoot is so lucky.

Not everything is so sinister either. Sometimes I forget how joyful a mushroom image can be. Especially when I use my 12-35mm lens to get a little more of the scene than my macro does. I really need to shoot like this more often! And remember to close down more for more depth of field. While I like this first photo, it could use a little more focus depth.

 

And look at the bokeh this lens produces, it’s dreamy –

But a tight portrait still comes up the winner sometimes –