Nature's umbrellas

[Sheila Smart]

Road testing my Canon 100 f/2.8



Cheers
Sheila

[land-lubber]

That photo does a lot for me, love the way that the mushrooms are leaning into the rain
cheers

[Geoff]

Very nice Sheila. From this shot I would suspect you're very happy with your new lens?

Anything you would change about the image? The stalks of the fungi seem just a little too bright to me, but that's just nit pickiing - lovely shot!

[Finch]

Sheila,

I really do love this shot. As someone who has always been partial to decent fungi shots with good lighting, you have captured these very well. The added bonus of rain droplets adds to the interest of the photo.

Excellent stuff

Cheers

Michael

[Grev]

Very very cool photo, great capture!

[Alpha_7]

Wow, very unique kind of shot and very funky... quite different to your candids aswell. Can you explain the situation and lighting used ? Almost looks like back lighting ??

[LostDingo]

Excellent image Sheila...very well done

I'm sure you are happy with your new toy....we just like to see the results

[hangdog]

An inspired shot! Thank you for sharing this.

--Chuan

[dreams]

wow sharp. very interesting too.

[Sheila Smart]

Wow, very unique kind of shot and very funky... quite different to your candids aswell. Can you explain the situation and lighting used ? Almost looks like back lighting ??

I was looking around the garden for subjects (flies etc etc) and under an old gum tree I found a lot of tiny mushrooms. I dug them up and placed them on a white plate hoping to get some reflective light. I put the plate on the balustrade and waited for late afternoon sun. Put my 5D on a tripod, got up close and personal to the fungi and when the sun eventually came out, I took a few snaps. I noticed that a few of the mushrooms looked like umbrellas fending off the rain so I got a water spray ... and the rest is history!

This is very rare for me. I don't normally set up shots like this but I think it works! These mushrooms are so fragile that almost brushing them would make them break.

Cheers
Sheila

[Geoff]

Sheila - sure did work.
What was the exposure time on this one?

[byrt_001]

hi

wow....this is a great phot, very good composition as well exposure, lighting is great, and really... i have never seen photos of mashrooms that are so beatiful

i would like to nominate this shot for potw

great shot

thanks for sharing

christian

[Alpha_7]

Thanks for the indepth explanation Sheila, you might not do it often, but when you do setup a shot you do it masterfully. The only thing that I can think of to improve the shot (and it would be going overboard) is to have a family of ladybirds or other insect / frog / critter taking shelter under the umbrella

[the foto fanatic]

Terrific "table-top" Sheila.
Well done.

[Sheila Smart]

Sheila - sure did work.
What was the exposure time on this one?

Here is the EXIF.
Date/Time 25-Jun-2006 15:27:06
Make Canon
Model Canon EOS 5D
Flash Used No
Focal Length 100 mm
Exposure Time 1/125 sec
Aperture f/22
ISO Equivalent 1250
Exposure Bias
White Balance (-1)
Metering Mode matrix (5)
JPEG Quality (6)
Exposure Program aperture priority (3)

Because this lens has a very shallow DOF this close, I chose f/22 which also slowed down the "rain" a tad.
Cheers
Sheila

[PiroStitch]

What's even more impressive is the noise...or lack of! Great shot Sheila. Could PP this to make it look a bit more sci-fi with the rain appearing like laser shots

[Sheila Smart]

The way the 5D handles noise is still really impressing me. While some thought the 20D handled noise, I was never happy with it. But the 5D is a different camera indeed.

Cheers and thanks
Sheila

[Dargan]

I'll just add another accolade Sheila. You are becoming the 'Devils Advocate' for Canon. I might just start looking at 5D's instead of D200's. This is my vote for POTW too.

[blacknstormy]

Nice