A bit of Fungi

[marlunn]

Cheers Geoff, #18 was on a felled tree buried in brambles about a foot up in the air - so moved the brambles away and tripod at no leg extension was perfect height #19 was a bin bag on the ground to kneel on and tripod flattened - to get low down - harder work - especially the getting back up !

This one eludes me for ID at the moment - when I get more time to sit with the book in front of the screen will try to get it sorted -

[IzzieK]

Nicely done, all three of them, Mark. I particularly like the third from the last. That one is cutie. The moss and the lichen contributes to the shot there...

[marlunn]

Thank you Izzie, appreciated. I liked the composition as well

[marlunn]

One of a few from today - this one I can ID! Cyathus striatus, Fluted Birds nest. You can see how small they are from the moss they are in 7-10mm When fresh the spore are in the base (these are old) and so look like eggs - hence the name

[Wavelength]

Really a great series.... Is the last one a insect catcher?

[marlunn]

time to do some more fungi - more of the usual suspects, I took images of about a dozen different types but only have Ids for these so far

Amanita muscaria - Fly agaric



This one is I believe Russula nitida



and this is Leccinum melaneum

[marlunn]

Really a great series.... Is the last one a insect catcher?

Hi Nandakumar, nope - but I can certainly see why you ask

[IzzieK]

This last series is more colourful and I think, more poisonous because they are coloured ones. I like the first one for its skirt...Hav I seen one before? I do not know -- I think in cartoons but not in real life....maybe I should start looking...
The Rusula and the white umbrellas behind it, I think I prefer the while umbrellas. They are a cutie and very white while the Rusula hasn't been used by any elves at the moment, it is a bit dirty looking and unkempt. The last one, Lecinnum's body and stature resembles the baobab tree, fat body. And so I googled it and it is edible...looks like it...

[marlunn]

Izzie some are edible but i would not want to say which when i find them - its not easy and you only have to get it wrong once with some of them to shuffle off this mortal coil !

having said that a few more as they are fun to photograph - using PS image stacking software - not brilliant - need to save up and buy a proper app for it

One of the Cortinarius family i think



Lycoperdon perlatum - Common Puffball



Honey fungi - first the slender form then the chunky form - honest !





Finally a very small fungi - cap is about 3-4mm across, Mycena clavularis

[Geoff F]

Everything about these images is excellent.

I'm not seeing any fungi here, except a few Honey Fungus groups. Possibly still a bit on the mild side with quite a few insects being present.

[marlunn]

Thank you Geoff. I must admit there has not been a lot here till today - its been a bit warm and dry overall. I think it needs a more foggy damp type of weather to bring them out

[IzzieK]

The first one looks like a Japanese umbrella. I like the composition of the last fungi. My favourite here is the common puffball. I have not seen that before but you said it is a common one. What do you mean by stacking app? Is that a smart phone you are using to take these shots here? There is Helicon Remote free for Android. Have you tried that? I just got an Camera FV-5. It is hard to zoom in. I also have the Photographer's Tools but then I am still learning.

[marlunn]

Hi Izzie, nope dslr with macro lens - Photoshop does basic stacking - its not brilliant but 'okay'. The puffballs were the best output of it compared to the 1st image a few blurred areas it could not cope with. I will be lookinhg to get Zerene stacking sofware later to do the job properly

[Geoff F]

I tried Zerene, Mark, before going down the Adobe CC route.

From my experience, the CC stacking option is equal to Zerene and a bit easier to operate.

For me, Zerene was a bit of a struggle in the way I had to convert each image into a Tiff and store them somewhere before switching to Zerene and reloading the images before stacking. And if there were problems which meant I had to do a bit of cloning to prevent some 'wrong bits' being selected I was in and out between two programmes which tended to cause me some confusion.

Also for me, I found the Zerene workflow rather complicated and confusing.

With CC, I load the images into Adobe Bridge and do basic editing then just select them and one click sends the images over to the Photoshop section. From there it is a simple task to drag the images across as layers on to a base image. If any further tweaking or cloning is needed it is very easy to work on one individual layer.

The Photoshop CC workflow is very easy to use. Just select the required layers and click Align, followed by clicking Blend; and the job is done.

However, without CC or one of the later CS software it is a different matter altogether.

[marlunn]

Thanks Geoff, I suspect I need to play a lot more with it - I will not be spending any hard cash until I am sure it adds value for certain. Its on a list to investigate as to what value it adds, this one came out really well I think given the size of the caps is only about 2-4mm