Every year, come September, the hunt for mushrooms photos is on again 🙂
I’m always looking very much forward to this time of year. At least from a photographer’s point of view because honestly, I can do without the rain (of which we already had plenty – too much, in fact – as of late).
Mushroom hunting time it is, and that means going out nearly every day. Visiting the same spots regularly and also venturing out to new woods, parks and other natural areas.
But as it turned out for this image, I actually saw a picture of Hare’s foot mushrooms taken by a Facebook friend. The photo was taken with her phone, and it was rather bad quality but good enough to recognize the Hare’s foot. So, of course, I contacted her to ask where she had taken this photo because I had never been able to photograph Hare’s feet myself. They are one of my favorite mushrooms and are so incredibly photogenic.
So this friend told me where she had taken the photo, and luckily it was in a park not too far from where I live. Now the thing is that the day after she had told me I wasn’t able to go. That was a bit stressful because 1. they really don’t last very long. They decay as fast as they appear. And 2. It’s a very busy park, especially on the weekend, with lots of people on a walk and tiny mushrooms being so easily trampled on.
Anyway, the next day I was on my bike to the park and I found the mushrooms pretty quickly. After that, it was just a matter of setting the camera and shooting as many photos as I could from all different angles because, as I said, you have to take full advantage of the possibility on account that the mushrooms only blossom for a very short time.
You can see in the image that these two are already starting to decay a bit (which actually sometimes makes them even more photogenic).
What are the TWO most impactful features that make your image a good photograph? Don’t be shy!
I think that I managed to capture the fragile nature of the Hare’s foot rather well here.
I also really like the soft foreground (which I believe is almost a must in these sorts of images) and the soft, silky background. Both these features make the subject (i.e., the mushrooms) really stand out.
If you could make this photo again, what would be the ONE thing you would like to do better or different?
For this particular image, I don’t think I would be doing anything different, to be honest.
Frank Bruynseraede shared this photograph with the FRAMES Facebook Group.
Photographer
Frank Bruynseraede, Antwerp, Belgium
Equipment and settings
Canon 90D, EF50-250mm
187mm, f/5.6, 1/250 sec.