In photography it is important to get the eye's in sharpe focus. It creates drama, and connects the viewer with the subject. But it is not always easy to do.
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| Nope. Missed. Front legs in focus. |
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| Umm. Maybe? |
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| Another maybe. |
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| And another maybe |
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| Later in the day this other one showed up. I think I got this ones eye's in focus. |
One of the things I like to do a lot is shoot in low light. I like a shadowy background for my subjects. This does present some challenges. A tripod is a must to keep the camera steady during the long exposures needed to gather enough to light. I also use the three second timer. Just pressing the shutter release button creates camera shake. I do this on all my shots. Not just low light shots. It makes a big difference in all but the longest distance shots or high shutter speeds.
Also since my subjects are close to the camera I need to use a higher f-stop to increase the depth of field. Otherwise I may have a depth of field of only an inch or less. Thant mean the front of the mushrooms may be in focus but the curved back sides my not be in focus. With the higher f-stops I need to lower the shutter speed even more.
Add to this shooting subjects that are low to the ground you need to be close to the ground in less you want all your shots to be top down. My current tripod has a minimum height of about 1.5 - 2 feet. That still some times gives mostly top down shot for shorter subjects. This first shot I had to use broken tree branch's that I found laying on the ground to prop the camera on. It's not easy to line up a shot balancing the camera on a tree branch, trying to get close enough to the ground to see through the the viewfinder and manually focusing the lens. Throwing in bifocal glasses to mix does not help either.
But when I get a good shot it is worth it.
This one had some interesting color too. But it was shedding it best color. This was taken several weeks ago. I wonder what it looks like now. I suspect it looks more the monochrome photo by now. I will try to watch for it this weekend.
Most of the wood fungus I see is white or gray. This pale orange fungus caught my eye a couple weeks ago. The nice thing about wood fungus is that it has a longer life cycle than mushrooms. Most mushrooms seem to only last about a week. I have seen blooms of wood fungus that last for several years. I don't know if they are still alive but the bloom persists year after year.
Actually it was pretty cool. During last nights thunderstorm/tornado warning I took a few lighting shots.
It seems like all I have photographed this summer is assorted mushrooms and fungi. I had hoped to have other subjects to post too. But this is what I mostly have some the next few posts will be lots of mushrooms. I will throw in the ocassional miscellanea now and then too.
