Joseph Stewart State Park, Set 6: Brave Mushroom and Visions of Fall (+10 insets!)

(+10 insets!) (Please scroll down to Today's Insets and Final Thoughts about Photography at Joseph Stewart for added picture information)

This will be my last set of nature pictures from our trip to Joseph Stewart State Park (I have another set of metal detector finds to finish off my trip pictures). My main image is one of my very favorite macro subjects!

For the Love of Mushrooms
Have you ever gone out with the specific intention to find mushrooms? They aren't always easy to locate! On my first outing with my macro lens, I kept my eyes open for mushrooms while I took pictures of leaves and other things but I didn't see any. I wasn't really focused on them at the time though and I figured there were plenty of them in deeper forest locations. The next day, Steve and I went on a favorite walk which took us past the edge of a thick stand of trees. Ah-hah! That's where they were hiding! There were bunches of them just off the side of the path and a little while later I came back with my camera to take pictures.

One of the things that made it hard to find them were all of the leaves covering them up. I kept my eyes open for curious lumps in the piles of leaves I saw and often revealed a wonderful prize underneath with a careful brushing.

When I take pictures of mushrooms, I do a lot of preparation beforehand. I remove anything I can that obscures or detracts, especially from the background. All it takes is one stem behind a subject to totally ruin an otherwise lovely bokeh, so I'm fastidious about making the scene as tidy as possible. I've learned though that taking time beforehand will make it much easier when I'm processing the image later.

The mushrooms I found at John Stewart were almost all hiding under leaves and I wanted to share that experience if I could. As I uncovered them and cleaned up each scene, I tried to keep a leaf or two exactly where it was if it enhanced the image.

As I revealed this mushroom, I got a huge smile on my face. Cuddled against it was a partially disintegrated black oak leaf. Wearing this leafy cloak of courage, the brave little mushroom turned to peer up at me and my huge, imposing camera. It watched curiously as I cleared the area, carefully pulling bits of grass and twigs out of the way. I cooed gently to soothe its trembling when I reached down to remove a bit of dirt from its head. The warm sound of my voice must have been strange but it relaxed and appeared to be happy now.

There! Everything was just perfect and I crawled backwards to compose and capture a set of images. While I clicked my way through apertures, I thought about the nice time I had taking these pictures of mushrooms. So many different kinds, sizes and neat groupings. As I gazed back at the darling mushroom and its little leaf, I knew this was my favorite one of all.

Today's Insets and Final Thoughts about Photography at Joseph Stewart
The fun subjects never ended as I wandered around…the first inset looks a lot like a cluster of grapes but it's actually a dried bunch of flowers on a bush, magnificently lit up in the autumn sunshine. I was so happy to get the chance to get some fall pictures because I didn't go out on any seasonal photo shoots. I had hoped there would be some nice pictures to find at Joseph Stewart and I sure did hit pay dirt! You will see lots of leaves that I liked (including one sitting next to the water hookup valve at our site), another colorful meadow scene, a pine cone, and even a stump that was totally covered with lovely bracket fungus! I didn't spend too much time with my camera while we were at the park--perhaps an hour at most?--and yet, look at all of the wonderful things I found. What fun it was to relax and melt into my passion. :)

Pam, I'm hoping that you're feeling better today…I know you said it's been very painful after your procedure. Wishing for a day of comfort and anticipation for the next steps in your recovery! *BIG HUGS* :)

Explored on 12/04/19; highest placement #2.