Hi :) I’m very very very interested in finding and photographing fungi and I was just wondering how you take your macro pictures! I would really like to be able to take similar ones! They’re beautiful and so clear! Thank you 😊
Well, first off, thank you for liking my pics!
I wish I had some great tips. My camera is an Olympus TG-3 , or “tough”as it says on it. It has some lovely macro settings, a built in LED, and it’s not just very tough but waterproof….all reasons I picked it. Generally speaking, that’s my big trick: Get a camera that suits what you take pics of!
Obviously that isn’t much help. When I had to get a camera in a hurry (once on a lifetime trip, old camera flaking out) I had to look through what was quickly available, cheap, and would be good for years to come. I got lucky.
My camera is a wee bit on it’s last legs now after years of daily use (over 7,000 pics last month alone…though the sculpting pics inflate the number), but it still does the “heavy lifting” of my photography.
So what do I actually do since the camera and mushrooms deserve most the credit?
Hold my breath. No, really. I don’t have a tripod or anything, so breathing can jiggle a shot.
Use my elbows like that tripod I don’t have.
Never be afraid to get down low.
No, seriously, get lower.
Can’t you get any lower?
Maybe shove some of the leaves and dirt out of the way so you can get just a tiny bit lower.
Ignore the mosquitoes.
Ignore the ants.
Ignore the deer flies.
Ignore the….
ARGHHH! Stop ignoring!!!!!
Try different angles, and especially notice whatever is around what you are taking a pic of. It can really change the look.
Be patient! Sunlight, especially through trees, is ever shifting. Taking a pic from under a mushroom with sunlight shining through it is completely different from one lost entirely to shadow.
Keep an eye out for things to photograph, but try not to worry if you don’t. Today you might only get a photo so bad you wonder why you don’t just delete it, but tomorrow might see something so amazing it turns out to be your favorite ever. Or until the next amazing thing.
Accept you won’t like a lot of your photos, especially if you know the thing looked way cooler in person. You also will frequently be baffled by the ones others do like. It’s just the way it is.
Remember, when you take a pic you are trying to capture what you think looks amazing, not trying to prove YOU are amazing.
Unless you are. I mean, maybe you make the most wildly arty pics that are filtered and cropped until they are unrecognizable from what you were kneeling down in the mud photographing. You do you.
Anyway, that’s the only advice I have. Look around, be patient, and take loads of pics!
Oh, and have fun!
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