Pair of Mushrooms and Tips for Photographing Fungus

2 more pictures (clickable) above in notes! :)

I am crazy about these mushrooms! They have such a wonderful texture and they're quite large--this one is about 5" tall and the one behind (featured as my Picture of the Day) is about 6" tall. They get HUGE--a good 7-8" tall and the 12-14" wide--total monsters! I have some pictures I took of these mushrooms last year which you can see as insets above! :)

Tips for Photographing Fungus: SET YOUR STAGE!
When you find a mushroom, take the time to "groom" the area before taking pictures. Grooming your stage is part of the routine and should be automatically expected so that you don't hurry and in so doing, destroy the very mushroom you're going to photograph (I've done it!) or get dirt and leaves on your mushroom (I've done it), which then takes more time to clean up. Yes, you can do some of this cleanup in post, but it's easier, better, and faster if you make the effort before you take your pictures.

When I found these mushrooms, I could barely see them under all the grass and weeds. It took me about 10-15 minutes to carefully remove all of the dead weeds, grass, and leaves from the area, and more time to carefully pull growing grass and other plants in the area. It's extremely important to remove any plants or dead stuff from behind each mushroom. Stems and sticks will distract and ruin the clean background. You want to be able to see the outline of your mushroom and any twigs or grass sticking up will make a negative impact on your pictures. Pay close attention to anything at or near the base of your mushroom--you want to get rid of almost everything, unless it enhances your subject. Remove, trim, or flatten everything from the mushroom(s) back to your camera because anything sticking too high will get into your pictures and you may not notice until you're looking at the pictures on your computer. When you're satisfied, look carefully through the viewfinder to double-check for any bits of grass or twigs sticking up around your mushroom. If you're not sure, take a test picture and zoom in to look. I stress this because tiny blades of grass are really hard to see but wow are they in your face on the computer! For each of these pictures, I focused and for both mushrooms I found many things to remove even after I was sure I'd gotten everything! Now, get out there and take some awesome mushroom pictures!!! :D