Tonight I was awarded Plant and Fungi photographer of the year 2020, from the SWPP, with this being the winning image. Im over the moon.
It was actually a lot of work getting this shot, travelling into woods on a mobility scooter, it was a nightmare getting to the spot. I took a mat to lie down on and LED light panels which I had to prop up using various sticks due to the lay of the land surrounding it. It was a battle to stop glare on the cap, being a slimy mushroom ( a Blue roundhead) , despite using a polarising filter to help. I ad to clean the mushroom stem with a tiny soft brush to remove specks of dirt, and remove distracting leaves and vegetation from surrounding area. I set up using a mini tripod with ballhead, but it was still difficult getting in the right position due to a .slope and the fact that the tripod is fixed size. I used my Sony A7ii plus a Sigma 150 macro lens and adapter. I had to manually focus using peak focusing as it was dark in the woods. I used ISO 50 to keep noise to a minimum, F10 to get the whole mushroom in focus yet still get bokeh from trees and shutter of 1/13 sec - utilising a shutter release cable to avoid any movement. I had one LED balanced but had to hold a second in place due to awkward location.
Here are other images taken at the same session.
No comments:
Post a Comment