Rich James
March 2025 - Psathyrella fatua (I think) Mushroom
Original
About the Image(s)
I took a hike up into the hills in east San Jose to see if some mushrooms had begun to emerge. The only one I found was this variety which is small but very pretty. I took out my full frame Sony with a macro lens and begun to set up when I discovered it had no card! (This isn’t the first time I’ve done this.) So I used my iPhone 15 Pro set on Pro Raw and a small LED light I had. Placing the iPhone on the ground and using the light to highlight the gills I shot a series of these at different angles. This is the one I settled on and doing some cropping, sharpening and de-focusing the background a bit, came up with this submittal. I’m really not sure which one I like better, the original or the crop.
7 comments posted
Rich, a great job of exposing and capturing this mushroom. I understand mushrooms grow in these type of places, but I prefer the cropped background. I probably would have gone a step further and darkened the sky spots, unless you will present this to a true nature bug. Congrats on finding and processing such a beautiful subject. Posted: 03/09/2025 13:09:42
Nice capture. I will agree with the crop and also to darken the sky spots as Bob mentioned. I wonder what it would look like if the mushroom were to be the only item in the image-removing all the rest of the foreground and background. Posted: 03/10/2025 11:04:45
Marti, do you mean against a black or textured background? Posted: 03/12/2025 11:51:15
I love the mushroom. But not the lower half of the picture. How would it be if you just crop to the bottom of the green? Posted: 03/16/2025 20:59:50
Rich, just lovely, I'm a fan of capturing mushrooms. You might consider blurring the background to about 35-40px and darkening it to make the mushroom stand out more from its background. I've taken the liberty of showing what I mean. I like how you've placed the light under its gills. Nicely done. Posted: 03/18/2025 04:59:39
Hi Rich. This is a lovely mushroom and I love the angle you've captured. My only suggestion would be to remove the light green stem coming in from the lower right corner and to add a vignette to keep the viewer's eye on the mushroom. Sorry you forgot your Sony memory card, but your IPhone did a great job, and getting that angle might have been much more difficult with a larger camera! Posted: 03/19/2025 01:54:26
Hi Rich,
Greetings my friend.
Your mushroom looks good in the frame. I love the angle that you have used. Nicely done and thank you for sharing.
Kindest regards.
Kamal. Posted: 03/25/2025 06:45:12
Greetings my friend.
Your mushroom looks good in the frame. I love the angle that you have used. Nicely done and thank you for sharing.
Kindest regards.
Kamal. Posted: 03/25/2025 06:45:12