Fungi with Macro

[tasadam]

.... just trying to identify the fungus.

You might find what you are looking for HERE.
Well, maybe not exactly that one, but you'll probably find the shape.
And there's THIS if they interest you enough.

EDIT by Mod... Split topic, this topic was moved from here. wT

[ollster]

You might find what you are looking for ...

How they let you become a mod I will never know. Incidentally, I love old 'gus and am buying a new camera to feed my newfound obsession for capturing them on film. Just so cool and varied.

...nice to see this thread descend into smut, too.

[tasadam]

Incidentally, I love old 'gus and am buying a new camera to feed my newfound obsession for capturing them on film. Just so cool and varied.

Hang on, did you really mean "film"?

A small number of my fungus images are in my Small Things gallery. It's a work in progress with big changes coming, soon I hope.
1:1 macro lens is great.

But if you want to get really serious, consider what this guy does.
This image has a description -

This fungi is about 3mm high. That means the cap is no more than 0.5mm across. I had to look really hard to see that it was really a cup, not a cap. These were growing in my macadamia orchard. It has been identified as a Marasmius species, in spite of the cup, but as yet it has no certain identification.

It’s very small – about 3mm high. As far as I know, it is an un-named species, but that’s only what I can figure out. I use a Canon MPE-65mm lens, which is a macro lens, but works at between 1:1 and 5:1 macro. This means that it can fill the frame with an object of less than 5mm (frame is 24mm high). I can’t see that small.

[ollster]

Hang on, did you really mean "film"?

OK then CCD! Geeze, ya pedant! I had a film camera once, PITA and not worth the trouble, never again.

I've got pics of a few of those ones in your gallery - the top left blue one, the green one, and the orange fingers. Very cool, and I saw them all, plus about 20 others within one 250m radius area down in the Florentine (a logging coup, was there helping friends do marsupial mouse/rat research).

That link/photo is superb, obviously a good eye for such things. I've always admired our diverse fungus, but my old camera (6 years old) can only do "macro" at about 15-20cms, so not real good for snapping fungus. I've started a small collection of photos from my particular outing into the Florentine area, but am yet to really build a "portfolio". I may head back down to the same area I was at last time with a tripod and attempt to get some actual good macros once I have my new camera. I really should post some pics on here, most of my stuff is junk, but occasionally there's a good'un. And not all of it is of suggestively shaped objects...

[tasadam]

I can see a "Fungus / Macro" split might be needed before long...
Some people actually do use film, thought I'd check (though I do tend to be a pedant).
For macro / fungus, I use the Nikon 105mm f2.8 macro lens, and we have Nikon D700 and D200 cameras. The D200 is a DX camera - the sensor is smaller than film. This has the effect of changing lens length by 1.5 times (DX Canon gear is 1.6 times).
So the 105 lens onthe D200 is about 158mm focal length. Better for real macro work. Though the D700 can be cut down to DX mode, better to use the D200 since we have it.
This image was taken with full macro. Looks crap on the site because of JPG compression and down-sizing. I have it printed in my portfolio at 8x12" and it's really sharp & detailed.

[ollster]

This image was taken with full macro. Looks crap on the site because of JPG compression and down-sizing. I have it printed in my portfolio at 8x12" and it's really sharp & detailed.

Still looks awesome...

[tasadam]

Still looks awesome...

Try this then. Same photo.
Having trouble with colour profiles on this monitor so I hope the colour is right, but this is part of it in full resolution.
It looks better, but you will see the deficiences you get with full on macro. These can be overcome, with a lot of work and patience, mainly behind the camera. This is one of those images I took for the "Wonder how this will look"...

[tasadam]

This topic is for the discussion of things to do with Fungi and Macro photography.
Gallery posts have been moved to their own topic, here.

[tasadam]

It's that time of year when the fungi on the forest floor is at its best. Typically from March through to May or June, the fungi is incredible given the right location.
So time to grab the macro lens and get out there! Feel free to add your photos to the Gallery topic for fungi with Macro, but hold on to your best photo for now - a "Fungi with Macro" Photo challenge is being planned for the near future. Details will be posted to the forum, and this topic will be updated to advise.

A few great spots I know of to see the fungus are the walk from Smith Plains Road to the base of Winterbrook Falls (near Black Bluff), and the walk to Liffey Falls from the top carpark, and the walk through the forest between Narcissus Hut and Echo Point on the Overland Track, around the area of the signposted Byron Gap turnoff. But my bet is any forest that's damp, and you'll do well.