Mushrooms is a nice subject for photography. There's a great variety of them, different sizes, funny colors, strange shapes, some of them are even a delicacy and some poisonous. Anyhow, a nice subject to be recorded on a film or with a digital sensor. Somehow it seems that it took a while before mushrooms appeared this year. Maybe it's because of the long and dry summer, mushrooms like humidity as we all know. whatever,  found a few when walking in a forest a few days ago and of course I  have to share some of them with you, like it or not.

  This first on is actually not from this week but from an earlier photo walk this year. Nice group of mushrooms in a landscape

  The following two are from our garden, a Common Stinkhorn (Phallus impudicus). The scientific name for it comes from how it looks (Have one other too, but I'm too ashamed to show it).

  The surface of this fungus looks interesting so I had to go really close...

  The next images are from this week...

  Actually I had in my mind to shoot birds, so I had my 500mm lens attached, but when I saw this beautiful mushroom I fast changed my lens to a wide angle, just to get the surroundings of the fungus too. Maybe not edible, but it sure poses nicely for the photographer.

   This red hatted fellow was hiding, so I almost missed it. Just love the red cap and the yellow colors in the backdrop... looks like fall to me.

                A family portrait. Mushrooms like to grow in strange places. Look for fallen tree trunks.

                     From a little bit different angle. These guys were quite tiny so I used a macro lens.

    The cap might cause some shadows and it sure ain't good for the beautiful gills which you most surely want to show in the image. A good way to get rid of the shadows is to place something white underneath the mushroom. Here and in the next one I used the white side of a postcard, simple, but it works.

  Besides using a postcard to open the shadows, I did some "gardening" with this one. Some times mushrooms can be covered in foliage or there can be some distracting twigs around them, so feel free to clean them away if you feel that they won't add anything good in to your image. Just be careful when removing stuff around the subject that you don't brake it, mushrooms are quite fragile... not so nice to smash your subject because of clumsiness.

  Ordered a book today, Heather Angels "Digital outdoor photography: 101 top tips". When I get it I might write a few words about it. Never too old or wise to learn new things and most of all I hope it will give some inspiration. We'll see.

      

  On Wednesday when walking in a forest a small thought hit my my mind. It started with looking at how people have left all kind of garbage in the nature. Somehow it looks like it's very difficult for some people to carry out from the forest their belongings. An empty beer can, how hard is it to pack it back to your bag? It's anyway empty now, so it's even lighter than before consuming it, right? Or that empty cigarette box, it's not a very big thing to put it back in to the pocket and carry it to the next garbage container, instead of throwing it were you are? Just too many people think that it's okay to throw garbage in to the environment no mater where you are. Maybe they think, "It's just me and my garbage, it's not a big deal", and when everybody are thinking in the same line of thought the outcome is that there is lots of waste in the nature.
  As a photographer I also think not just from the environmental side but from the aesthetic angle too. It's just so "great" to come home from a photo shoot and then notice that there are some nice garbage, empty bottles, plastic bags etc. in the image. That's when you make a choice if it's possible to clone the garbage away in post or do you just throw that nice image away as "garbage". Of course you can do some cleaning at the place before hitting the shutter release, but in too many cases you just won't notice the trash until you are at your computer and you are eye balling the image at 100%.

 Empty water bottles  and containers are quite a common view. as they are empty the wind and water will carry them around and that's how all nature lovers can enjoy of these beauties very often.

 Empty glass bottles and jars. Nice, specially when broken!!! Of course glass is heavy and when you are drunk you don't have the strength to carry those empty bottles out from there. It's better to leave it there were you were.

                 Some one left the forest without one shoe. People leave strange things behind them.

  If I'm completely innocent? That's the thought that really hit my mind. Honestly, the answer is... no. Probably I've in some occasions left some garbage in the forest. A few days a go I lost my lens hood somewhere in there. For sure that piece of plastic won't decompose in a while if ever. Pretty sure that in some occasions I've dropped some candy bar papers and it have gone unnoticed. So all of us are leaving some traces of our selves when out in the wild. Just a small step out from the path might make a big impact on the surroundings we are in. For example...

  when walking in this type of environment, water and sandstone, you just have to be very careful and watch your step. The water have made an amazing job during hundreds of years and the sight is amazing. But if you don't watch your step you most likely will break something. It will be fixed, but it really will take some time.    This just one example and no matter where we walk it's always good to look around and place that next step carefully and even better if we can find a way which will have the smallest impact on our surroundings.

 As a conclusion, let's not throw and leave garbage here and there, but carry it away from the nature and let's watch our step and in that way show some respect to the environment and our fellow citizen too.