Miniature Fungi in Hardwick Wood

Here is some of the miniature world on the floor of  Hardwick Wood, a pleasant walk on a warm sunny autumn day (before the heavy showers arrived!)

Hardwick Mosses and Fungi

When the canopy is bare, it is a great time to photograph the many fungi, lichens and mosses that flourish on the woodland floor. I was using a close up filter on a wide angle (23mm) lens to give background wherever possible

Late Fungi Hardwick Wood

I was surprised how many fungi were present in Hardwick Wood today - mainly Mycena species, plus some very large Clitocybe geotropa caps. I focus stacked quite a few of the toadstools at F2 or F4 (30 images) giving diffuse backgrounds. Used a LED light that changes colour temperatures for lighting - mainly daylight but also did a composite of several images taken with different colour lights.

Flowers Using Wide-angle and Long Lenses

Because of the cold conditions last month and early this month followed by warm temperatures, all the spring species are flowering together giving wonderful displays in Cambridgeshire's woodlands - here at Hardwick Wood. I took images with both a long lens (140-560mm) and a wide angle (23mm). Generally I prefer the wide angle shots giving some environment information. The Oxlips are particularly fine this year. For many years it was thought that the oxlip was cowslip/primrose hybrid. In 1842' the botanist Henry Doubleday did some breeding tests, later confirmed by Charles Darwin, that showed it is a separate species.  

Infrared Winter Trees

I walked up to Hardwick wood yesterday morning in the mist using my Sony RX100 IR-converted camera. These are the jpegs more or less straight from the camera achieved by setting the white balance in the camera with a white card. The wood itself was magical with misty trees and frosty leaves - only problem is the very muddy paths (in some cases they have turned into streams).