It looks like a scene from a stylized, CGI-heavy science fiction movie like Avatar. Delicate mushrooms rise from a fallen log, their slender stalks glowing an electric yellow against the dark forest floor.
It doesn't look real, but it is. Well, kind of. This is basically what happens when you shine ultraviolet light on the right type of fungi.
Titled Shedding Light, this photograph won the Plants and Fungi category of Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2026 – developed and produced by the Natural History Museum, London.
It was taken by Greek photographer Agorastos Papatsanis on the lower slopes of Mount Olympus, near the town of Litochoro, and captures a species of mushroom called Mycena renati, commonly referred to as "beautiful bonnet".
We can’t see ultraviolet light ourselves. But certain materials absorb it and return the energy as visible light, a phenomenon called fluorescence. That's what's happening here.
It's pretty, but that's not the main point of the picture. As the contest organizer explains: "Mycologists are harnessing this phenomenon to distinguish closely related species of fungi by the colours and patterns they reveal under UV."
Papatsanis captured the image on a Nikon D810 with a Laowa 15mm f/4 lens. As this lens is so wide and can focus so closely, Papatsanis was able to fill the front of the picture with mushrooms while still showing the forest behind them.
The exposure was 8 secs at f/20 and ISO400. A long exposure was necessary because the glow is faint and the forest was dark. Even at that aperture Papatsanis wouldn't have been able to get everything sharp, so he took six shots – each focused at a different distance – and combined them into one (a technique known as focus stacking).
What I like most about this picture is how well the colors work together: the cool blue-green of the forest making the bright yellow of the stalks stand out all the more. Papatsanis specializes in photographing fungi, and wants to highlight their “aesthetic power, complexity and ecological significance”. With this image, he’s certainly done that.
The winning images are on show at the 62nd Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition at London's Natural History Museum in London until July 11 2027. Tickets are available here. Discover more winning images on the Natural History Museum website.
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