1st attempt - fungi

[kentlass]

Never tried photographing fungi before. I borrowed a friends travel tripod which proved to be a bad idea as it couldn't go down to a low level so I really couldn't get close enough which was a shame as it was my first outing with a marco lens! Critique very welcome as I did enjoy doing this and I would like to learn more!

Ohh, and I have no idea what these are!

[DigiDiva]

Great first attempt with macro. Understandably, a lower angle would have improved the shots but its not always possible. On the 1st shot, can you clone out the distracting leaf at the bottom left? I love the texture in the second one. One tip is to do a little gardening 1st to remove distracting items like the blades of grass in front of the white mushrooms.

I love macro and its great to experiment with different D of F's.

[nick_gray]

A good start with the macro lens. They look a little over exposed, so could be tweaked in your photo editing software and if you are going back they would probably benefit from a shallower depth of field (larger aperture).

As for what they are, I'm not totally sure but I think the first photograph is either Shaggy Scalycap (Pholiota squarrosa) or The Blusher (Amanita rubescens). The second I'm pretty sure is the Common Puffball (Lycoperdon perlatum).

Nick

[kentlass]

Originally Posted by DigiDiva

Great first attempt with macro. Understandably, a lower angle would have improved the shots but its not always possible. On the 1st shot, can you clone out the distracting leaf at the bottom left? I love the texture in the second one. One tip is to do a little gardening 1st to remove distracting items like the blades of grass in front of the white mushrooms.

I love macro and its great to experiment with different D of F's.

Thanks Chris! I see what you mean about the leaf and I will have a go at cloning it out, although my editing skills are still abysmal.
For the second one - originally the grass in front of the fungi was as high as the grass behind so I gently flattened it down but I left those few blades of grass as I thought it looked more natural. If I were to do it again I would do some with the grass in and then some after a little judicious pruning then I could compare

Also thanks to Nick for your comments [sorry I'm not sure how to put in more than one quote!] next time I shall spend more time experimenting with different DOF. I suspect I have ruined the images in trying to edit as they were both slightly under exposed initially! I hate the editing