As you click your way through this website you may be impressed with the natural beauty of fungi. They exhibit a great variety in colour and form. When the weather is right, the woods and meadows of Nova Scotia teem with attractive mushrooms and other fungi. If you could only capture these images forever, they would give lasting pleasure. Photography is the way to do it and, for many, photographing mushrooms is a lot more fun than eating them and much less risky.

Until recently mushroom photography was generally accomplished using a single lens reflex (SLR) camera and preferably a macro lens. The macro lens itself could often cost as much as the camera. Also, exposures can be a little tricky in the dappled shade of the woods and you could spend a lot of money on film and processing before you were happy with the results. So, not only was this a pricey hobby but the results were sometimes disappointing.

But we are now into the 21st century and the age of the digicams. Once you recover from the initial high tech shock, digicams are dandy little technological marvels. Prices are dropping rapidly and you can now buy a pretty good digicam for the price of the SLR used routinely in the past. More than this, digicams almost always have macro capability built in and can photograph objects as close as a few centimetres from the lens. Although serious photographers might continue to use the classical SLRs with special macro lenses for maximum quality, for most of us the results from digicams (if we do it right!) are great. And remember, you never have to buy film for the rest of your life!

There is one very important caveat, however, i.e. although modern digicams can be substituted for the SLR, the basic rules of photography still apply. So here are a few things we must pay close attention to.

1. There isn't much light in the woods.

Exposures of a second or longer are not unusual and hand held shots are out of the question. A tripod is absolutely essential to steady the camera or you will get blurry pictures (note the difference between fuzzy and blurry. Fuzzy applies to that part of the picture that is not in sharp focus. Blurry is the word used to describe the entire picture due to shake or movement). You need a tripod that is close to the ground so you can get a squirrel's eye view of a mushroom. There are a host of mini tripods coming on the market to accommodate the demand initiated by the macro capability of digicams. Pick any one you like, but the sturdier the better.

If you are seriously into macrophotography of fungi, mosses, flowers, insects etc. there are standard sized tripods available where the centre post unscrews and the legs "break" so you can lower the head to ground level. These are great and highly recommended, especially for use on uneven terrain. A bean bag is a good alternative for a low angle of view but don't overuse it!

2. Reflectors.

In mushrooms, large caps often shade the stalk which then appears unnaturally dark. A couple of reflectors to lighten up the shadow areas helps. Reflectors are made from 8" X 10" pieces of cardboard (e.g. old mounting board) covered with aluminum foil. You just prop up the reflectors against an aluminum tent peg stuck in the ground and adjust the angle to reflect enough light to lighten up shadows. Reflectors can also be used to add a bit of highlight to a flat image. You can do the same thing with fill flash but this is a lot trickier and not for rank beginners. In fact, if you are into fill flash already you probably don't need to be reading this stuff. The built in flash in the camera is too strong for close ups and will 'white out ' the scene with over exposure.

3. Stopping down the lens.

There is a diaphragm on your camera lens that opens and closes. When fully open the lens it is said to be wide open or at maximum aperture. This is designated by a number called the f-stop. A digicam might have a maximum aperture of f 2.8. When you close the diaphragm to a smaller aperture you are said to be stopping down the lens. In older cameras these 'stops' are engraved on the lens and are 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, 22. You don't have to worry about these numbers except to know that every number in this series lets in half the amount of light as the number below it and twice as much light as the number above it. You don't even need to worry about stopping down the lens in digicams as on the automatic setting the camera does everything for you without any instructions from you and thank goodness for that! It picks the best combination of aperture and shutter speed to give you the correct exposure. Too easy! However, it is important to remember the following points.

A. The smaller the aperture the greater the depth of field.

B. The closer the camera is to the subject the narrower the depth of field.

What on earth does this mean?

When you are taking a picture close to the subject and with the lens wide open (at full aperture) then the depth of field is very shallow and you might find that only the front mushroom of a clump is sharp and the rest is fuzzy. You compensate for this and increase the depth of field by stopping down the lens. You want all the depth of field you can get, so you use the smallest aperture to get maximum depth of focus. So! How do you stop down the lens?

Calamity! Calamity! Woe is me! YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE TO READ THE MANUAL! Here is where you get tech shock. Digicam manuals are written by people who don't need them, for people who can't use them. It's even hard to use the index.

You must set your digicam for aperture priority. That means you have to go from automatic setting to manual setting on your digicam. You do this by going to your camera manual and then follow the instructions in the book that allow you to pre-select the aperture (= aperture priority). Digicams don't usually go past an f 10 aperture. If that's what you have then that's what you take. Pre-select the f10 aperture and the camera (on the tripod) will automatically give you the correct exposure and also automatically focus on the subject. What more could you ask?

At f 10 in the woods, the exposure will be quite long, and that is why you need a tripod. Also, after pressing the shutter release (careful there!) give the camera a few seconds to store the image before you touch it or move it. Of course in some digicams you can change the effective light sensitivity ('film speed') from ISO 100 to 200 or 400 or even higher. These film ratings are linear so with twice the ISO number you have twice the sensitivity to light so the exposure can be halved. But you don't get something for nothing and the penalty might be a loss in image quality.

At last! Now to take the picture.

Once you find a nice group of fungi set up your equipment. Move around! Check different angles and heights for the best composition. A common error is to have too much background and the subject mushroom is too small. So, try to fill the frame. Also, remember to use reflectors to add some light to the shadow areas or brighten the scene. If you have a willing companion (or very long arms) you can reflect a little sunlight from many feet away.

So, if everything goes right what can you expect from your digicam?

Curious? Why not view a selection of shots of mushrooms taken with a digicam.