Fungi on an old tree stump

We have a few old tree stumps quietly rotting away. They were from trees that were close to the house and getting a bit dangerous, so they needed to come down before they fell onto the house. The wood was used for firewood and the stumps were dug out and left to rot in an odd corner behind the barn.

They were dug out back in 2000, and all three of them are showing interesting signs of decay as nature takes back her own. One stump in particular shows an interesting variety of fungi and other growths. This stump happens to be upright whereas the others are lying on their sides.

The picture above shows a small clump of fungi growing through some moss on the top of the stump. The stump is sheltered amongst some small trees but, at times, sunlight can reach it through breaks in the leaves. On the day this was taken the low autumn sun was shining on this group of fungi. The shadow side was rather dark, so I had to use a reflector to illuminate the shadows.

The taller fungus was about an inch or so high.


The picture below is another group of the same type of fungus. These were growing on the side of the stump where the roots form supporting buttresses for the tree. Again, these are growing though the moss. These were in shadow so do not benefit from the sun highlighting them.



This third photograph shows a couple of other fungi growing at the top of the stump. I have yet to identify these - I cannot find them in my field guides.




More fungi and natural history photographs can be seen in the Environment Gallery.

Technical details:
Camera: Canon EOS350D
Lens: An older 100 mm macro lens for the first and third photos, an EF-S 17-85mm IS set at 85mm for the second image
Sensitivity: ISO200
Exposure: Aperture Priority.
Lighting: Outside - Natural light. The first has a reflector filling in the shadows.

Fungi in the meadow

We have been blessed this week with some fine weather, it being mostly sunny or with light patchy cloud. This has given me the opportunity to wander around our smallholding looking for photographic opportunities.

I liked the picture shown above because it shows two fungi in their setting: this was the north-eastern edge of a small meadow that gently slopes to the south-west - quite a suntrap at times. This view looks in a south-easterly direction.

To get this photo I had to get the camera down low - it is only a couple of inches off the ground. I used a wide angle setting (the widest possible with my lens) for two reasons: 1) to show as much of the location as possible, and 2) to maximise the 'depth of field' - this is the range of sharpness from closer-up to further-out. For the technically minded, I used the smallest aperture for this shot - f22.

To show the sharpness range, I have enlarged some of the detail from this photo. The first one shows the fungi close to the lens (it was only about 10 inches or so from the lens). This shows a reasonable level of sharpness.



This 3rd image is an enlargement that shows the distant view. As you can see it is slightly out of focus, but on the extreme left the fence is just coming into focus. I tried several shots where I adjusted the point of focus and this was the best. The one with the distance well focused made the fungus out of focus.




To show what difference the aperture made, the next two photos are from another photo, takenjust before, using an aperture of f11.

With this first one, the fungus is in focus an looks just a little sharper due, I think, to the f11 setting being intrinsically sharper than f22 (most lenses are sharper in the middle of their aperture range) and partly due to the point of focus being exactly on the fungus.



But at a distance, the view is very blurred.



Technical details:
Camera: Canon EOS350D
Lens: EF-S 17-85mm IS set at 17mm
Sensitivity: ISO200
Exposure: Aperture Priority. 1/50@f22
Lighting: Outside - Natural light

More fungi and natural history photographs can be seen in the Environment Gallery.

Autumn colours are showing through

Autumn this year in this part of the UK is not such a good one for colour, although if you keep your eyes open, there is some beautiful colour to be spotted.

This first picture shows some red leaves on a blueberry bush. We have two blueberry bushes of different varieties but the second does not have such good colour as this one (this bush also bears a better crop of fruit!). I tried taking a number of photographs from different angles but only this one, taken from the underside with the sunlight shining onto the top surface, showed the depth and richness of the red colour.


The next two photos show leaves on a small ornamental maple tree. In the first of the two, I have tried to isolate a single leaf against the blue sky. I love the contrast between the orange hue of the leaf and the blue sky. It is not a perfect specimen of a leaf, but I prefer it that way; it shows a leaf at the end of its 'working life', battered by insects and weather.





This shows a single leave, surrounded by others in a different state of decay - some are still green, others more brown, but all look good against the blue sky.


I have started a new album in the environment gallery where a few more images of leaves in the autumn can be seen.

Technical details:
Camera: Canon EOS350D
Lens: An older Canon 100mm macro
Sensitivity: ISO200
Exposure: Aperture Priority. 1/13@f25, 1/320 @f13, 1/400@f13
Lighting: Outside - Natural light

Guinea Pigs

For some time now I have been promising my wife that I would take some photographs of her pet guinea pigs. This week I finally got round to doing it.

Although the animals are used to her, they scatter when I entered the pen. So we bribed them with a fresh dandelion plant which they proceeded to munch. Getting down low I managed to get the shot of them together shown above.

But there they stayed. I got up slowly to take other pictures and they scattered. This enabled me to get the pictures of two individuals (but not the third).







The complete set can be seen in the pet picture gallery that also includes pictures submitted by guests (feel free to send one in!)

Technical details:
Camera: Canon EOS350D
Lens: Canon 17-85mm IS lens
Sensitivity: ISO200
Exposure: Aperture Priority. All at F8, shutter between 1/250 and 1/500.
Lighting: Outside - Natural light