Just a couple of photos that don’t belong anywhere else – clearing out the blog folder a little.
From back during the Eno River outing, I spotted this mushroom from better than 10 meters way, because it stood that tall – somewhere between 15 and 20 cm. I have no idea what it is, but it might be related to the image below from 2015.
I just want to point out that both images benefited from getting right down to ground level, as well as a short depth-of-field and natural lighting. I didn’t have the opportunity for sidelighting for the top image, given the time of day, but it might have made the textures more dramatic – you can see the increased contrast on the tattered piece of the bottom image. You could possibly also achieve this with an off-camera flash, but at the risk of becoming too contrasty as well as dropping the background into darkness. Plus they’re mushrooms, so decide for yourself how much effort they’re worth in getting fartsy with.
Another, from the butterfly bushes at home.
This is likely a juvenile blue dasher (Pachydiplax longipennis,) but that’s not important right now. What I want you to do is find the four wingtips.
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Give up yet? One of them is trying to hide, but you can see it if you look carefully. It’s the second from left, and extends down across part of the dried flowers. One edge, well out of focus, sits right alongside the edge of the first wing (again, from left.) Don’t be fooled by the wings on the other side, or the leg that bends sharply to grip the flower horizontally. This just shows you how short depth-of-field can get, because we’re only talking about 15-20mm from the defocused wingtip to the sharper body (and especially the opposite wing) of the dragonfly. You’re seeing the first wing, its companion, better because it’s virtually edge-on to the camera – it’s still well out of focus, but darker and more distinct from being ‘concentrated’ in one spot, rather than flat like the second wing.
Okay, sorry, I’ll work on better content shortly.