Magic mushrooms - especially for Alex and Dylan

[Pink Dragonfly]

Here's one of my photos from this afternoon of my mushroom family Taken from below, on my knees (yes, the jeans are going in the wash) and all mushrooms - hardly any bark, and what there is, I made sure it was blurred

105mm macro, 1/125s at f5. I was annoyed (with myself) that I didn't have more DOF (too lazy to bring the tripod), but now I actually quite like the shallow DOF and soft feel to this image. I put a water colour edition of this in my gallery for fun! And for some reason the mushrooms remind me of orange slices on little sticks....NO, I haven't eaten any of them!!! (It is apparently safe...)

Thanks guys for helping me expand my horizons

Mette

[Martin Brazil]

Really nice Mette, maybe you could do the same looking down from above them, I'm not sure if it will work as you will loose the stalks but worth a try. I like the shallow DOF too.

[A.M.D.A.]

That's a terrific shot!

I really like the shallow DOF, selective focusing and especially -- the low viewpoint. VERY well done!!!

Great comp & colors.

[Pink Dragonfly]

Thank you

I've got quite a few different angles - I'll get around to resizing them... I tried from above, on my tiptoes, but my 5 ft 3" was definitely a limiting factor Also the top of the mushrooms were quite shiny, almost slimy by now...

Mette

[Dylan8i]

yeah if its been 5 days since the first set im surprised they are still in this good of shape.

i like this photo alot better. Much more interesting IMHO

the shallow DOF really brings the attention to the gills on the lower shrooms. a tad more probbably wouldn't hurt either. i would like to see the stalks at the bottom that are cut off.

next time lay on your back and look up at it :-P

[Pink Dragonfly]

I didn't realise mushrooms grew so quickly! So you're saying I'm lucky that theu haven't grown more? I was surprised they were all still there, as they are on a tree lining the main footpath through my next door neighbour cemetory, which also serves as a very popular shortcut for both cyclists and pedestrians - several hundred people at least must be passing every day and I would have thought some kid would have broken one or more off, but no. Lucky me I actually got quite a few funny stares as it was today, I'd hate to think what would happen if I was on my back - or on a step ladder

Mette

[Pink Dragonfly]

I managed to retrieve the original via Picasa, this is what it looked like before cropping - I took a bit off at the bottom and a bit off the right hand side. I had actually been wondering whether to get rid of the two at the bottom altogether?

Mette

[Pink Dragonfly]

Thanks, Martin!

Here's a different angle, but I don't like it as much as the first one - doesn't have the magic feel to it. And too much bark LOL I also find the little black crumbs (probably bark?) on top of a couple them a bit distracting...

Mette

[Martin Brazil]

Yes, you are right Mette, your shot from below is the best. The different colours i.e. the pinks of the gills, the browns of the stalks and the oranges of the ones higher up, are really special in this shot and I think you loose that the side shots. I agree with Dylan on the small point of keeping the full stalks on the bottom two.
Your shots have really got me thinking and I shall be on the lookout for some mushrooms when I get out in the jungle this weekend. The rains are just starting so it should be a good time for them.
Thanks for the inspiration.

[Pink Dragonfly]

Thanks, Martin I think I should have included you in the thread title! Next time, for the sequel

On those two bottom stalks, should I not crop the bottom just a teeny bit? And surely, I need to take some of that bark off on the right hand side?

Have a nice trip to the jungle; I'm envious Looking forward to seeing your shots!

Mette

[paulnj]

That is a simply amazing image!!!

[A.M.D.A.]

Congratulations on Featured Photo!!!

[OldClicker]

Featured photo! Congratulations. - TF

[paulnj]

Well deserved indeed!!! Awesome image!

[Canon_Bob]

Wonderful work, and congrats on the FP!

[Pink Dragonfly]

Thank you all

I am very honoured, my first featured photo here just 3 months after getting my camera I nearly choked on my late night snack when I logged on and saw

But I wouldn't have got here if it hadn't been for all the great advice and inspiration from you wonderful guys! And thanks, Dylan, for making me take a different perspective on mushrooms - I promise I'll lie on my back the next time, despite my mushroom tree being on a major public footpath

To Paul Fitzgerald aka Mr. Fitz, I hope you are looking down from Heaven - this one is for you

Mette

[AgingEyes]

Those are some very good looking mushrooms. Didn't know mushrooms could look that good

Congrats !!!

[Ron Kruger]

Congratulations. That really is a good shot.

[Martin Brazil]

Congratulations on the Featured Photograph Mette, well deserved.

[scott-devon]

Congrats Mette! That is a beautiful shot, way to go.

[Pink Dragonfly]

Thanks again, guys This definitely has made my week! A week full of Christmas stress and very little photography...(at least my frostbitten camera hand is recovering )

AgingEyes, I had no idea either that mushrooms could look that good - I had always thought of them as pretty boring and very much an OAP photography subject - sorry no offense intended! Now I know otherwise...

Dylan, I am SO grateful you made me go back and try different angles!

By the way, I am still wondering if I should crop some of the right hand bark off and maybe also a teeny weeny bit off at the bottom - or will it make the photo too elongated? (This is the completely uncropped version)

Mette

[Dylan8i]

Sorry ive been dealing with school work and basically had to reformat my entire laptop, so i haven't been around much.

congrats on the FP.

im actually beginning to like the side view reshoot more now :-D


since you can't crop out all the oof bark i don't think it needs a crop, although if you chop off alittle on the right and bottom it prob wouldn't hurt.


as a result of my reformating, ive been reorganizing my photos and stuff, so i may post a few oldies but goodies in a few days. (ive already selected my favorites from 2008 - turned out to be 60 photos)- i was trying to think of a good way to present them here, with out a post with 60 photos in (or even 50)

[Wild Wassa]

Magic Mushrooms? ... they look a bit like Gold Tops.

If you squeeze the stalks and the stalks go blue-black ... then you've got psilocybin.

I only know this because magic mushrooms are found in the wet soaks and pads on the hills where I live ... the first moment the frosts come, .

May your photography be in a state of extended well being ... as is now proven by the recent research and trials being done by scientists at John Hopkins Medical Institution.

Warren.

[Pink Dragonfly]

Hi Warren, I know these aren't "true" magic mushrooms, they are Velvet Foot. I chose the title because they were magic to me This thread is a sequel to " Help needed - my first mushrooms": http://forums.photographyreview.com/...ad.php?t=49872
If you read that, it will be pretty evident why I called them "magic mushrooms" - and as it happens they were truely magic, they gave me my first Featured Photo! So do your photos reach amazing heights of artistic brilliance when the frosts come?

Dylan, just curious, what's making you warm up to the sidewards view? I think I actually have a few more nice shots from that batch which I'll post when I get around to it - suffering from severe PCS at the moment I'm looking forward to "The greatest Hits of Dylan" - why don't you put them in your gallery and then make thread announcing this and we'll all go take a look?

Mette

[Dylan8i]

humm side view... i always kind of liked it. it needs some work ( crop left side etc) the dirt on the tops never bothered me (most mushrooms have lots, it adds environment to them), and the fact that they all are in focus.


Im not a fan of the gallery here at all (hence why i upload from photobucket). i tried uploading two (of 60) of my best of 08, and they actually worked... but im still not a fan (to much work to upload that many photos, still worried it won't work correctly, when you click on them they get monstrously big, can only view thumbnails of 9 at a time etc etc). but it really doesn't matter cause my laptop broke.... again.