These are from yesterday....I was *planning* on photographing swans but they were not cooperative...see what happens when you plan... :~) Found growing in a log...... Taken with the digi, as I don't have a macro lens for my Nikon yet, and early morning light....a couple of these could be a tad sharper I think. And I admit to having put that bright red leave behind the 'shrooms. Hehe......

Some more.........

And one more........

WOW! Those are fantastic! The first one is my favorite. With that red leaf in the background it give is almost a neon light look. Great shots! Magick Michael aka zhounder

them mushrooms look look so magical, they might be good enough to eat...

Red leaf? I thought it was some sort of alien. (J/K) Lots of possibilities, IMO. First of all, on the bottom pic, the stems almost look like they glow! Kewl. Top pic, I wonder what a crop would would look like cutting off the shroomies on the right that are out of focus (do we see a trend here with me...my out-of-focus problem? Grin) All in all, I think I like (as they currently are), the bottom one best. One other note, that is some of the richest looking moss (especially in the first 2 pics) I've ever seen. What a beautiful color! Makes me want to find some under a big oak tree and lie down on it. (after removing any vagrant acorns first...hehe.)

These are all great but like apects of each the foregrounds of the first two, but I like the last one best perhaps cos it obeys the rule of thirds! The DOF works very well also.

Such a distinctive little shroom, and nothing in the book that exactly matches. [Which is why I'd not eat anything unless I bought it at Jiffy-Mart, and even then I use caution.] I'm guessing "Blue Mycena," Mycena subcaerulea. Have to kind of look under their little skirts, but likely have gills. Lives in leaves, humus, and decayed deciduous trees. The book notes that this is a white-spored mushroom, and does not bruise blue, unlike the similarly shaped hallucinogenic psilocybes. [So, no pinching the shrooms, 'Chelle.]

I'd say they look like things do when you TAKE those hallucinogenic psilocybes, and not with a camera. Very out-of-this-worldish looking. They'd make good prints!

Just really good stuff! I like 1 and 3 best. With 3 being my favorite.

Being able to isolate these minor miracles in detail is really rewarding. With some planning you have a prize print. The color seems right on target. Did you use anything to get balance set? Bill

they certainly do look out of this world! Great, magical, minature fairyland & POV! hmmm- I like 3, no, 2, uh 1 is good too, 1 & 2, ...3 &... Oh mush! I really like all 3! :)

I appreciate the comments from all of you....you all make me feel like I know what I'm doing when in truth I really don't....... Chuck you may be right about the backgrounds on 1 & 2...but to be quite honest I love playing around with DOF and experimenting with that sort of thing....and personally don't find a soft/blurred background objectional....well OK sometimes it doesn't work....but I do like the look most of the time. Had I carried my tripod with me into the woods I may have used a smaller aperture....laziness overtook me that morning. And Bill I did do minor curve adjustments on these in PS for levels and to fix a slight blue cast. My personal feeling is 1 & 2 are not sharp enough again tripod use would have helped. These may also be a bit cluttered....should have removed the pine needles etc....at least that is what I have been told elsewhere....need to make myself one of those little kits....

The lighting in these is excellent. I would suggest getting out and shooting more often at this time of day if you are getting results like this.

"These may also be a bit cluttered....should have removed the pine needles etc...." The pine needles definetely belong, but some of them could have been removed so as to not compete with the main subject.

Personally, the DOF in these does not bother me at all. In fact, I think it really helps.

Last thing... If and when you put a nature kit together, consider a small bean bag. these work great as an inexpensive replacement for a tripod when shooting at ground level, and are very helpful when one is feeling to lazy to carry a tripod.

DOF...hmmmm. I'll try to explain my many comments of things being out of focus. I don't mind background stuff being out of focus. Whether it be macro photography or just regular portrait photography. Where I start getting "itchy" is when, IMO, too much of the foreground is out of focus. In macro photography, this is hard to control. So, that brings me to picture number one again. Where the shrooms on the right are close enough on the "subject" plane to not really be classified as being in the background. Or perhaps BECAUSE they are mushrooms, the vieweer subconsciously "includes" them in the subject plane. Nor are they in the foreground. Obviously, they are in the background because they are out of focus. So, my remark was based on this: Since the mushrooms were the main subject and the focal point, it bothered me that some of the nearby mushrooms were not in focus. That's why I said I wondered how a crop would look with just the 2 mushrooms in focus. IMO, Picture 2 is just about perfect, focus-wise. The foreground is a tiny bit out of focus but not enough to bother the photo. Or bother me....hehe. Photo 3 has a really blurred foreground. Due to the composition, there seemed to be no way to avoid it. You didn't have enough light to increase the DOF and cropping right below the twin mushrooms was not an option at all. Hope I've shed some light (pun intended) on my remarks above.

OoOoOo wow, Mich! I've never seen shrooms like these before. And kewl photos, too. I like the DOF. The colors are great, the thingies look phosphorescent (to me anyhow). Did you by any chance see faeries? hehe ;-) (*