Fungi Workshop at Brandon

Coloured lights and prostrate figures puzzled other visitors to Brandon CP yesterday, as the RPS Nature Group attempted to photograph the limited number of Fungi on display in more creative ways. Some of the fungi like the Yellow Stagshorn, Fly Agaric and Mycena are brightly coloured; with others, we used UV light or coloured lights to give a different feel to the image. Off to Santon Downham today for part 2.

Miscellany of Fungi from Brandon and Santon Downham

 On Saturday at Brandon, I used a UV light on a variety of toadstools and must research what causes the consistent different colours that are emitted under this light source. At Santon Downham was well as finding a wide range of new species, we tried using a smoke machine and a crystal ball with some of the toadstools growing on the abundant branches and in the pine cones. I photographed what I thought was a small beetle and it turned out to be a sheep tick while the white '?gall' from Saturday is a Sputnick Spider's egg sac. 

Fungi Photography Planning Visit

I spent this morning planning tomorrow's RPS visit on site  and was delighted to find a good variety of species. the light level was very low but did give some lovely soft muted autumn colours. A bit more light tomorrow would be good. Taken with Fuji XV100 single shots or Olympus 12-45 stacked images

Mission Accomplished at Brandon

The only thing that I definitely offered for the RPS Workshop on fungi at Brandon  yesterday was over 30 years of visiting and hence a lot of knowledge of what species are found where and when. Brandon fulfilled this promise with lots of colourful and attractive species from the Porcelain fungi up on the beech branches to the colourful Mycena haematopus, Fly agarics and Amethyst Deceivers. We tried different lighting and experimental  techniques - some not yet quite mastered like the 'toadstool in the Bokeh'. We even found lots of Slime Mould -  though probably only one species.

Wide-Angle Fungi at Brandon

Brandon still has numerous fungi, which now have very colourful autumn leaves as a backdrop. I only had a 'landscape' wide-angle lens with me but am pleased with the results.