Fungi at Blashford Lakes

November 20, 2011 Chris

I visited Blashford Lakes (a Hampshire Wildlife Trust wildlife reserve) last weekend to take a look at the wild birds that are starting to winter at the lakes, walking round the lakes I regretted not taking my macro lens with me as there was a great display of fresh Shaggy Ink Cap fungi about along with some others. I visited again today – taking along my 100mm Macro lens, but stupidly forgot my quick release adapter to attach my camera to the tripod. So leaving the pod in the car I set off with only my bean bag for support – not ideal in darker conditions, and not so easy to compose the shots. I had to increase the ISO to 400 ( normally use the lowest of 100 for still macro on a tripod).

In the week gone by the shaggy ink caps had mostly disappeared, and there were no real groups about but I did see some fresh ones singularly and this one I took as it was fairly free of distraction. ( I boosted the detail and colours in my new Photoshop plugin toy – Topaz Adjust 5 – but only slightly).

Shaggy Ink Cap. Taken on Canon 50D with Canon 100mm F2.8 USM Macro Lens. F5 ISO 400 1/60. Topaz 5 Winter Effect (faded by 60%) applied.

This next example show how the ink caps get there name, as it starts to dissolve into a black gunky – ink like top.

Weeping Shaggy Ink Cap. Taken on Canon 50D with Canon 100mm F2.8 USM Macro Lens. F8 ISO 400 1/30.

On route to the ink caps I saw a variety of Parosol type mushrooms – not exactly sure what species. Unfortunately it being dark and not having the pod only this example came out sharp enough.

Parasol type mushroom. Taken on Canon 50D with Canon 100mm F2.8 USM Macro Lens. F3.5 ISO 400 1/60.

I think this orange fungi also looks nice in the autumn leaves.

Fungi in the leaves. Taken on Canon 50D with Canon 100mm F2.8 USM Macro Lens. F5.6 ISO 400 1/15.

And this one I’ve cropped to a square frame – the top was just more green moss – and I like this composition better. Again shooting on a tripod would of helped with composing the shot better in the first instance.

Small fungi in the Moss. Taken on Canon 50D with Canon 100mm F2.8 USM Macro Lens. F5 ISO 400 1/25. Cropped to square for effect.

And finally a really played about shot – some small fungi in the grass and due. Again using my new plugin toy – Topaz 5 – this time with a glow in the dark preset. I kind of like the surreal effect.