This weeks blog post is a walk thought of the shots taken last weekend at the Australian Botanical Gardens, Mount Annan. 

A Bit of a mixture this week in shots. starting off with a Willie Wagtail (Rhipidura leugophrys) in the grass opposite the plant bank. This one was collecting nesting materials and seamed to be heading to the sheoaks beside the small dam there, So I'll have to keep an eye out there for the future. 

Then walking along to walkway beside the cannel I eventually came to the clearing where this Eastern Rosella (Platycercus eximius) was sitting along with a small flock of them, this one is the only one that stayed its ground, the rest took of and this one didn't stay to long. 

Heading back to the car I spotted the Long Billed Corella (Cacatua tenuirostris) playing Peek-a-boo in its hollow. 

From there I drove up to the connections gardens where I spotted this Pied Currawong (Strepera graculina)  on its nest its mate came by and passed over some food to feed to junior, which you can just make out the orange been in this shot, the afternoon got a bit windy here so the nest was moving in and out of shot and in the dark environment of the understory not the best conditions for this shot. 

With not so many shots under my belt for the week and wind picking up I tried a detail shot of this tree fern frong. Hand held, using my normal mushroom set up, Canon 60D with 100 mm f2,8 L Macro lens. (No flash used this time) 

This Red Wattlebird (Anthochaera Carunculata) was doing a spot of feather maintenance. No doubt the off feather was out of place from the wind on the day. 

The Western Austrlian Paper daisies are starting to come to an end now, so think Last week end was the pick of the days for these, this year, the wet weather easlier on in the year when the garden bed was all but washed away took its toll this year on the display. 

The last few weeks I've taken a few shots of the white Waratah this week it was the more common reds turn to flower so this is shot of the red Waratah. This shot was taken with the Sigma 150 to 600mm sports lens a bit of over kill but thats the set up the tripod was set to so easies to get the shot with. In this case I did use the flash so was able to underexpose to get the black background and only light where I wanted with the speedlite. 

​This last shot for the week at the start of the car pard was the stem of a grass tree, so you can see that the spike is really a host of tiny flowers, no wonder last weeks lorikeet was interested in one of these. 

Well thats it for this weeks shots from the Australian Botanical Gardens, Mount Annan. 

Thanks for dropping by my blog, some exciting news coming up here in the coming weeks, so stay tuned. 

Glenn

This weeks blog is a look at this weeks shots from the Australian Botanical Gardens, Mount Annan. Saturday I again took a walk thought the Australian Botanical Gardens, Mount Annan, with the cameras with a bit of Rain here last Thursday, I thought there was a better chance of finding some mushrooms to shoot, But as you'll see not so much luck. 

 I started out around the Stolen Generation Memorial, where I usually find a few birds about and some time mushrooms, this week no mushrooms and not to much bird life around. So I moved on to the small dam opposite the plant bank where this White-faced Heron (Egretta novaehollandiae) was on the hunt.  So this three shots are of the bird scouting out. 

Preparing to strike. 

Then the strike, you can see the protective eyelid come over the eye to protect the eye and all the feathers on the back of its neck stand up from the force of the strike. 

Just behind this dam is a walk along the side of the cannel in the wattles there are often the Thornbills both yellow and Brown, this shots of a Yellow Thornbill (Acanthiza nana). 

With not much bird life about and no mushrooms so far I decided to try my lens at flower photography, The mistake here was not to note down their names, Shall pick them up next week so will update this blog when I get the names. These are all taken in the connections gardens, for those that know these gardens.

These next two are of a small native Pea with the second shot showing the pea pods.

The White Waratah's were in full flower this week so this was the week to see these. With the first shot showing the flowers on the whole plant this one about 1.3 meters high, with the flowers measuring around 150mm in Diameter. This shot was taken on the curve in the path, not standing in the garden as it may appear. 

Then a close up on an individual flower light with one speedlite, the shot under exposed to loss the back ground then light with the speedlite to fill in the flower the speedlite was to the left slightly in front. hand held as was the camera in this case so a bit of a juggling act here, mainly because I have the Gimble head on the tripod and didn't change it out for a ball head. Still need to come up with a workable system of changing out the heads on the tripod.

I did eventually fine a mushroom to shoot this weekend. This one in the connections garden, The front edge of this one has been eaten away but a snail or slug as there is still a bit of the silver trail on the right edge of the cut out but looks like a little home for someone. This one lite with two speedlites one in a soft box to the left and a gelled speed light to the right. 

The last three are back to some of the birds found this week, starting with am Eastern Spinebill (Acanthorhynchus tenuirostris) This one was eating insects which is a bit different to the normal sector they take. 

An Australiasian Grebe (Tachybaptus novaehollandiae) maintaining its nest, theres already a few chicks motoring around the lake now. 

​Last shot for this week a dusky Moorhen (Gallinule tenebrous) watching me watching it. 

​So thats it for this weeks shots I did mange to get a mushroom shot for the week plus a few bird shots so all up not to bad for the week. Nothing to exciting but still time out and about with the cameras so all good. 

​Thanks for dropping by my blog this week, I'll be back next week with more. 

Glenn.

Reflections on Mushrooms the Journey so far.

Thought I’d reflect on my journey through mushrooms so far, this week.

It’s been a few years now since I took my first decent mushroom shot, June 2012, my first attempt at off camera lighting. Since then my photography moved up a whole new level and has not looked back. My first attempt was using the Infrared trigger inbuilt in to the flash and camera so needed line of site Camera to flash and only one flash used. I only owned one at time and was working out how to use it and what to use it for.

I was happy with this one and did a little post processing work in lightroom, pretty basic colour correction a little bit of a post crop vignetting that was it,  and with that I had started my trip down the road of mushroom photography. More by happy accident than planning.

One of my next shots was again my experimenting and seeing what I could do, not really knowing what I was doing, for this shot, I set the camera up on a tripod, set it on remote timer and had it set for a long exposure and hand held the flash over the top of this group of mushrooms and manually triggered the flash many times over the top, blasting the light through the tops of the mushrooms, I tried quite a few of these and eventually got a few I liked. Once again just playing around and seeing what effects I can get with light. This one I did a bit more work in light room as by now I was getting a little more experienced with light room and just what it can do.

About now I found Google plus and found a weekly theme called +ShroomshotSaturday curated by Patti Colston (https://plus.google.com/u/0/+PattiColston/posts) where each Saturday you post a Mushroom shot on Google plus, This was the real start of the mushroom photography for me, From then on I have pretty much managed to post a separate mushroom shot every Saturday for the last few years, Where ever possible I head out every Saturday and go looking to shoot a mushroom, each week trying to improve from the week before, not always easy depending on what I find.  Occasionally I come back empty handed but then go through my back catalogue to see what’s worth posting that hasn’t been posted as yet, In this way I manage a shot every weekend well pretty close to it. It gives a reason to go out and take photos not that I really need one, but with a goal set of one shot every Saturday Ideally taken on the Saturday then you have a driver to push you.

When Google Plus created the collection function I started to put my mushroom shots into a collection, Collecting all my mushroom shots in one place in google plus. Somehow and I’m not sure how that happened Google plus managed to find this collection and it now appears as one of there recommended collections to follow and since then my mushroom collection of shots on Google plus has taken off, I currently have over 55000 following my mushroom collection, (https://plus.google.com/u/0/collection/8enZW) compared to only just under 7000 following my bird collection (https://plus.google.com/u/0/collection/A7TRT). Who would have thought there were that many people interested in mushroom shots, certainly surprises me each week as the number of followers grows there. I think the google recommendation certainly helps that a long mind you. 

My next step was getting a second speedlite and going to wireless triggers, also adding in a small spray bottle to my kit so I can add in a fie water spray if needed to add some effect or just to damped a mushroom and the moss to enhance the colours. I also started to use a small piece of alumni cooking foil to add as a fill reflector as well. So by now going from a simple one light set up to a quite completed at times set up. But the results are getting better I feel.

My final step late last year was when I meet Spikey Mikey, a Mushroom that stayed around for over a year (Yes this one has a name) This one was one of the more unusual mushrooms I’ve found to date like a donut on a stick but covered in small spikes the mushroom is only around 8mm in Diameter and very contently growing on a small stick which I can pick up and walk around with, this makes a great subject as I can take Spikey Mikey for a walk to areas that are very mossy or in one case supported the stick in a tree and shot him at a comfortable height. With all the detail that Spikey Mikey possessed to do it justice I need to go to yet another level so I taught myself Focus stacking and bingo Spikey Mikey in fully detail.

My final set on my journey so far has been to take my shots and take them to a different level, adding a fine art touch to them, This one I picked up by going on a photography workshop. I found a workshop by Steve Parish on his nature connects website https://www.steveparish-natureconnect.com.au/upcoming-events/categories/ Where I found the Western MacDonnell ranges tour https://www.steveparish-natureconnect.com.au/macdonnell-ranges-tour-2016/

The trip was great only a small group of six of us with included Steve and Ruth I got to visit central Australia again after about 28 years, and had a great time. One of the things I learnt from Steve was taking an image and taking it to a different level again, I’ve been playing around with that the last few weeks since I got back and getting some good results so far, early days yet and certainly on a learning curve again but I can see this has promise and can’t image where it will take me.

So that’s my trip through mushrooms so far, in four years I’ve come a long way from someone that took basic snap shots, to some one that can now technically craft an image using multiply lights and software to enhance an image, the journey has only just begun so who knows where it will take me in the next few years. I’ve now got a presents in Google Plus, 500PX, Ello, TSU, Instagram and Flicker. TSU also has communities and there is a group there again for mushrooms ran by Harry Yale and some great photographers in that group as well.

The trick is to never stop learning and be open to ideas and let things go while getting out and enjoying all that nature has to offer.

Thanks for joining me this week on my journey through mushrooms over the last four years, for all those that’s following my mushroom collections on google plus a big thank you to all still hard to believe there are over 50 000 following my mushroom collection.    

Thanks for dropping by my blog, Back next week for more.

Glenn.