Second Day at Brandon in Continuous Rain

After a morning walk with Peter, Holly and Bracken, I changed my already sodden coat and spent a few more hours finding and photographing fungi. Many of the colours were much brighter in the wet and low light conditions. I was pleased to photograph good specimens of the Amethyst Deceiver, ??, a Collared Earthstar, False Death Cap (Amanita citrina) and a Ramaria coral fungus

Fungi at Brandon

The recent (and continuing ) wet weather has certainly resulted in a great number of fungi emerging though they are getting very quickly nibbled. Here some more complete specimens including some impressive slime mould fruiting bodies on an old beech log. All except slime mould taken with Fuji compact 23mm lens.

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Creative woodlands AKA Poor Camera Control

I was using my Fuji compact camera yesterday to shoot fungi with its very sensitive screen control. as I returned it to my neck, I obviously touched the screen on a few occasions where I hadn't turned the camera off. I like these 10 examples - I am sure I can't repeat any deliberately.

Playing with Lighting Fungi at Wandlebury

Despite all the rain, fungi were in pretty short supply at Wandlebury but I found a few to practise different lighting set ups (flash, gels and continuous LED). The minute spider was obviously attracted  (or disturbed) by the underneath lighting and got in on the act. The gills of a large bracket on a beech tree reminded me of the fan vaulting in King's college Chapel but so much more intricate.

Wandlebury Trees and Leaves at F1.8

Yesterday was Cambridge Camera Club 'outing' to local beech and mixed woodland in search of fungi and autumn colours. Well with the new Covid regulation, it couldn't be an outing in CCC tradition of being able to explore in a group sharing our screens and  subjects. However, it was good to get out and see people at a social distance. The fungi were very sparse (blog to follow) so I spent much of the time using a legacy Olympus lens at F1.8 playing with composition, depth of field and focus point. Even did a bit of ICM exploring direction of camera movement in relation to result - the start colours will bleed into the finish colours so with these autumn colours different results for 'up' or 'down' respectively.