mushroom Archives

Forest Floor Serenity

Photographic opportunities are all around us, including the forest floor at our feet.

For this Sunday, I am going back to an image from quite a while back. I often refer to the need to look for photographic opportunities in all directions. This includes looking down from time to time, as sometimes we find a gem right at our feet.

This image came from one of those moments of observation…

An image of two mushrooms on the forest floor, surrounded by pine needles. — Forest Floor

As I was walking back to the parking lot during a dog agility event, I noticed these beauties on the forest floor. As there were plenty of people around, I took the opportunity right away to capture this little scene.

The composition of this image violates some of the standard rules for good photography, but it works for me. I have actually looked at this image mirrored along the vertical axis, and it feels off in some way. I think that the part that works is created by the lines that I managed to capture, even though the hero is on the left hand side. I’m curious what you think about this.

Another example of what might be captured right at our feet is in ‘A Thursday Throwback – 3‘. Also, I was lucky to get this shot while I could, as both mushrooms became casualties of foot traffic later…

Growing at Mushroom Speed

Growing in stature

The WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge provides the theme of Growth.

During the extreme cold that we are experiencing at this time (it’s 0F at this time [-18C]), it’s hard to think about anything growing, other than the frost on the window. So I went back a little ways to warmer times to one of the images that is still among my favorites.

Mushrooms are amazing structures in Nature’s grand variety; their rapid growth and, often, beauty make them very attractive. Yes, there are plenty of hideous mushrooms, and the prettiest ones are among the deadliest ones, but that’s part of the challenge.

Here’s an example of the beauty…

Mushrooms_MG_0090 — *The Gentle Mushroom*

If you read this and are an expert in mycology, please let me know what variety of mushroom this is; I have made several attempts to figure it out, but am unsuccessful thus far.

Stay warm and comfortable and have a wonderful day!

Beautiful Fungus

Forest floor magic

The WordPress Daily Prompt brings the focus on the lonely Mushroom. This brought me immediately to an image that I captured a number of years ago.

Mushrooms always have a bit of mystery surrounding them, as they can often be attractive, delicious and deadly… A thorough understanding of the lowly fungus is not something that many of us possess, which causes most to give the mushroom a wide berth. While I’m not a student of mycology, I do appreciate the beauty that mushrooms often posses, as they appear on forest floors, trees and many other locations that sometimes seem incongruent with growth.

Here’s one of these little beauties…

A chance encounter, as I tend to keep an eye out for anything interesting to capture, causing me to get down to a lower level, so that I could get a proper view of the wonderful structure of this mushroom.

Have a wonderful day!

Dignity and the Mushroom

Simple beauty

The WordPress Daily Post prompt has the interesting theme of Dignify; this immediately made me think of a rather simple scene that I captured a number of years ago.

As I walked among the trees at an agility trial that I was photographing, my eye caught this gentle mushroom standing beautifully among the debris of the forest floor. I knew that I had to capture this lovely little scene…

Looking back at this image, I still enjoy the simple beauty of the mushroom, standing there with dignity. Unfortunately, the story of the mushroom did not have a happy ending, as some time later, I noticed that it had been knocked down…

Hope you enjoy!

This too shall pass

Sometime beauty tumbles

There are few things in Nature more temporary than mayflys and (some) mushrooms. The former comes with the rite of Spring and the promise of Summer to come, whereas the latter is an opportunistic, spore-driven wonder of Nature, which can take amazing shapes and present stunning beauty.

Quite often these beauties are reviled and simply trodden upon, rather than appreciated, as their location on forest floors doesn’t protect them from the inconsiderate travellers through their domain.

This little beauty stood proud among the detritus of the forest floor, showing off as a jewel among common pebbles. Several hours after I captured it in this photo, it was gone….

Inspired by the WordPress Daily Post prompt of Temporary.

Wednesday’s Wonderment

You’re not a man, you’re a mushroom!

“You’re not a man, you’re a mushroom!”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

Sometimes, the simple things in life reveal the true beauty of the world around us. Such I often find with mushrooms, oft overlooked denizens of the forest floor and other opportunistic locations.

How this photo came to be

Those of you, who read the latest post in my series on how I learned photography, will not be surprised that this was a purely happenstance find, as I was photographing an agility trial that day. In between events, I sauntered through the neighboring woods and chanced upon this beautiful specimen; this is where awareness of one’s surroundings really pays off.

Getting down to its level gave me a beautiful view, particularly with the light coming from the left and the muted, darker tones of the forest floor behind it. A shallow depth of field really separated the mushroom from its surroundings, so it was just a matter of not over-exposing the shot to get it the way I wanted it to look.

One minor confession: I did remove a pine needle or two that were just in the wrong place…

For the inquisitive photographers among you, I will update this post with the EXIF data, when I get back to the source file, but I can tell you that this was shot with a Canon 70-200mm F2.8 lens.