Janet Brien's photos with the keyword: Macrolepiota procera

7 more pictures above, which include all of my Parasol Mushroom pictures and my other picks of the day! :) (all but the first two are clickable!) I've been watching a pair of Parasol mushrooms growing by a brush pile down by the road, and today was picture day for one of them! This monster is about 6-7" across, just HUGE! It was growing right in front of the brush pile, and I know from experience that the result of a busy, messy background like that is pretty ugly and distracting. (Roll your mouse over the pictures above to the last one, and you'll see one with brush behind it!) However, yesterday when I checked on the pair, which were growing right up against each other, I saw that one had pushed its neighbor over. Gently touching it, I was surprised to find that I would be able to pick it up without hurting it. So, today I pulled grass and weeds right next to the brush pile, dug a hole for the stem, and carefully lifted it out of its original home and to the spot I set up for pictures. Using my stacking technique from my past couple of Parasol mushroom pictures, I got several apertures that would work, and when it was done, I put the mushroom back where it was growing. Processing the pictures, I used two different apertures to get the full depth of the mushroom and then placed it into a picture which had an aperture of 4.5 for a nice soft background. I hope you like it! :) John Oldham (August 9, 1653 – December 9, 1683) was an English satirical poet and translator. Wikipedia: John Oldham Explored on October 30, 2013. Highest placement, page 4.

4 more pictures in notes above! :) Wow, yesterday's bike ride totally wrecked me! I've been tired all day, and so has Steve--we really should have gone on a shorter ride--and I'm very run-down and battling cold germs that are threatening to make me sick. Airborne is really helping, but I'll be sure not to stay up too late tonight... I hate getting sick! That being said, I decided not to go on my long walks today and instead took the dogs to the lower forest where I uncovered another one of the mushrooms I found the other day. (They are hiding in the tall dead grass and weeds and you can only just barely see the caps!) Since the aperture merging trick I used worked so well with the other mushroom, I used it today as well. This is also a Parasol mushroom, but as you can see, it's very different looking, so I thought it would be ok to share. I am crazy about the exposed gills, aren't they fabulous?! I always like to show them because they're so interesting, but it's not always possible to get a proper angle for this. However, this mushroom's gills are very exposed and I just HAD to take pictures!! Sanford I. "Sandy" Weill (born March 16, 1933) is an American banker, financier and philanthropist. He is a former chief executive and chairman of Citigroup. He served in those positions from 1998 until October 1, 2003, and April 18, 2006, respectively. Wikipedia: Sanford I. Weill Explored on October 22, 2013. Highest placement, page 3.

What a special mushroom this is! I found it the other day when walking the dogs, and this one is about 5" tall! There are at least 6 there, gathered in a semi-circle around a brush pile! And if you think this one is big, there's one twice as large! Incredible!

Two fun words to describe this ridiculously large mushroom, which measures about 12" at it's largest dimension! HOLY COW, that's BIG! I found it growing with about 10 others in a circle around a pile of brush when I was on a walk with the dogs! :) (You can see the brush pile just behind it!) "Ginormous" was probably first used around 1948 and is a contraction of gigantic and enormous. "Humongus" is another slang word meaning extremely large or huge , and was first used as college slang in about 1967. 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! :) Explored on December 15, 2012. Highest position #292.

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

2 more pictures in notes above! :) About a week ago, I discovered some special mushrooms growing down by the road where I saw them last year. Because I know that these ones live for weeks, I didn't rush to take pictures, and instead waited for the right time. Well, today was the day! Steve had the camera on a photo shoot until this afternoon, which meant the sun was in the perfect placement for these mushrooms. In the morning the area is in deep shadow and only when the sun begins to dip towards the horizon does the light look just right for this area of the property. I took Moosie and Zoe with me and as I approached the spot, I noticed that there were other mushrooms too! Taking one look at the large, gorgeous mushrooms, I immediately plopped down and groomed the area for taking pictures while Moosie and Zoe had fun nosing around and exploring nearby. When I got home, I was very happy to find that there were many nice images to choose between, but in the end, I ended up merging two pictures: one with an aperture of 2.8 for a soft background, and one with an aperture of 16 for deep focus on this mushroom, which was about 6" tall! I used a Topaz filter called ReMask to get a clean mask around the mushroom and then placed it into the image with the 2.8 aperture. A bit of massaging to remove bits of the original mushroom, a bit more massaging to work the crisp mushroom into place, and voila! Picture of the Day! :) (If you are interested, Topaz Labs has a 30 day free trial for all of their products, including ReMask: www.topazlabs.com/downloads Rachel Louise Carson (May 27, 1907 – April 14, 1964) was an American marine biologist and conservationist whose book Silent Spring and other writings are credited with advancing the global environmental movement. Wikipedia: Rachel Carson Explored on October 20, 2013. Highest placement, page 4.