The Photographic Society of New Zealand has a National Convention each year and this year Hutt Camera Club are hosting it. I am on the organising committee for and as such have a vested interest in making sure the event is memorable for each and every attendee. One workshop that I was keen on having was photographing fungi. My mother was very passionate about photographing fungi when she first joined the society and even went to a few Fungi Foray’s that happen each year for fungi enthusiasts. It is a very specific genre of photography, but also fits in with macro photography. The fungi are very small and require very specific equipment to photograph them successfully. In preparation for the convention we have been visiting the local bush walks to find the ideal site with lots of fungi, toilets nearby, room for a bus to park and picnic tables for lunch. Sounds like a big ask but we have found it!
Today was our second visit to this bush and the second time I went without a macro lens, without a flash, and without a tripod. Totally crazy to expect to get any usable images without the essentials, but I tried all the same! We found about five or six different types of fungi today and I managed to get images of two of them. Firstly the bright orange favolaschia calocera and a tiny cup like fungi that had what looked like a gel at the bottom attracting tiny insects. A macro lens would have allowed me to identify this fungi but alas I had to photograph it from a bit of a distance to get it in focus. I am now confident that the Finding Fungi Off-site Workshop will indeed find fungi and there should be some awesome resulting images from it. These are my images from today taken with my Lumix G9, hand held in the low light of the bush. I am totally amazed that they are even in focus with my shaky hands. I hope you enjoy them!
