Janet Brien's photos with the keyword: gills

I always thought mushrooms were interesting, but once I began taking pictures, my interested turned into a grand love affair. To find them can be a great challenge, and I am often surprised by something fantastic! This beautiful golden mushroom was large at about 2" across, and I was able to get a perfect angle too. :)

Aren't mushrooms wonderful? So many kinds, and so interesting at all stages. Here is a tiny one that's beginning to open it's cap! :)

Using shallow depth of field is wonderful for creating a dreamy image, and it's surprising how busy the background may be, and yet, you can reduce the clutter to a lovely soft blur, which enhances your subject. Once I understood how DSLRs + a good macro lens can create such neat images, I finally couldn't be happy with my old super zoom anymore. This is a mushroom I found on our property on New Year's Eve on the very last day of my 365 project! If you move your mouse over the upper left of the image you'll see the picture I chose for my 365 Project!

Here's a mushroom I photographed back in 2012, and I got lucky with some nice light too! I have mixed feelings about this picture. I remember being so upset because you will notice that the very front edge of this mushroom is not in focus. I took about 10 different pictures to make sure I had good focus and STILL, it's not crisp along that edge. I am crazy about the bokeh, but it could be a bit softer. It's not my best work, but I am proud to display it because it does have a special glow to it that has always made me stop in my tracks to look at this picture. I processed it just a few days after I took it, so I've had a long time to sit and think about this image. :D If you've read this far, I'd love to know--would you have trashed this picture or kept it. Not hurting my feelings if you vote for trash, since it's flawed. Does it matter that the front edge--which is so important to the success of this type of image--is not in focus?

(+2 in notes) A couple of weeks ago I posted a picture of two mushrooms that were joined by a droplet of rain. That same day I discovered some other special mushrooms as well. These two are obviously in love and don't care if anyone knows it! The pair of identical droplets on their stems just kills me!! :) (By the way, if you roll your mouse over the picture you'll see the other picture I posted a couple of weeks ago and also my 365 image from that day!)

Our property has many different environments for mushrooms, so I've found lots of unique species in many sizes, shapes and colors. One day in November a couple of years ago, I glimpsed something orange near a pine tree and what fun it was to discover this beautiful family of mushrooms just waiting to have their picture taken! I called out, "One, two, three...CHEESE!!" And they all pulled in close for the perfect shot!

Steve and I went out one soggy day a couple of years ago so we could drive to another location in the hopes of finding some mushrooms. We found a patch of conifer forest and I popped out of the car for a look. After about 10 minutes, I looked down to see this pair of affectionate mushrooms, leaning together and joined by a droplet of rain. If you look at the base of the mushroom on the right, you'll notice that it grew up througha amall hole in the leaf that surrounds it!

There is nothing quite like creeping around a forest in the hope that I might find some mushrooms, and then, just when I am about to admit defeat, I find not only one, but a perfect pair! These two seem a bit surprised to see me, and I expect they didn't much appreciate the flash I used to illuminate their gills, but the effect was certainly wonderful! Although this was indeed a wet day, you can see that these mushrooms secrete their own moisture which is slippery to the touch!

This mushroom was completely hidden under piles of leaves, and I only found it because I was looking for lumps that seemed to be pushing up under leaves. What a treasure hunt, and such a grand prize! To discover a baby snail on top of it was even more amazing, WHAT A DAY!! (this image is a 3-stack, and not my best attempt, but it will have to do!) (Thanks to Ken Dies for helping me ID this mushroom! I thought it was a Chanterelle! :)

The other day when I went up to our ridge to retake pictures, I spotted something white out of the corner of my eye. I looked over and saw what appeared to be a white cap dropped on the forest floor, but as I approached, I was delighted to see it was a white mushroom!! I moved around to the far side and was delighted to find that I would be able to take the image from below to display its frilly gills with the sun adding a perfect ethereal glow! (By the way, this mushroom's cap measures about an inch across.) (Explored on Flickr, February 8, 2011)

[best appreciated at full size against black] In one of our meadows, near our house, there is a rocky granite valley which gets a lot of water runoff from the hill above. Springtime is magical here because it's covered with glowing green moss and other lush, water-loving plantlife, including mushrooms. There are dozens growing here and every one is like a little person with its own character. Can you imagine my elation when I found this pair standing side by side? Incredible! I hope you like this image as much as I do, it's one of my favorites! I've uploaded two other pictures today and I hope you'll visit them too! Thanks to all of you who have visited and have left comments and favorites! I try to go to all of your pages within a day or two and is a highlight for me to see your beautiful photography! :) NOTE! I have finally updated my profile and I hope you'll take a look to find out a little more about me and how important all of you are to my experience here on Flickr! www.flickr.com/people/sfhipchick/ This image was taken in February, 2012. This image was taken in February, 2012. (Explored on February 11, 2011)

[best appreciated at full size against black] We have a few types of mushrooms that I see most commonly on our property, and this is one of them. Nearly black on top, with chocolate-colored gills underneath, their caps often have jaunty up-turned edges that positively demand a photograph! :D This image was taken in February, 2012. Explored on February 14, 2012.

[best appreciated at full size against black] Yesterday's mushroom was found on our front stairs, and didn't want to be part of the family portrait of mushrooms I'd posted a couple of weeks ago. I mentioned that there was another one too. This itty bitty mushroom is very shy and really wasn't sure about me taking its picture. As you can see, it's trying to hide behind the moss, but I was able to take a fun picture to share with all of you! Isn't he a cutie pie?! :D This image was taken in February, 2012.

It's always wonderful to get a shot of a mushroom when you can see the gills, but did you know that not all mushrooms have them? Gills are just one way that mushrooms disperse their spores, which are kind of like seeds. Mushrooms also release spores via pores, teeth, through pressurized holes, they drop to the ground, and there are other methods too! If you would like to know more about the way mushrooms release their spores, take a look at this page: Mushroom Spore Dispersion