Fungi photography in 2022

It's been about three months since I've posted anything on this blog. Did you miss me?

Yeah - thought not.

I have been posting content on this blog for sixteen years now, and I've known for some time that I'm really only doing it for myself. Yes, I get some views (yay), and some of you have even read and commented (thank you) - but my stats from Blogger have never been great. Or even good.

But hey - this isn't a 'pity me' posting. Far from it. I'm actually quite excited about photography again - hence the new post. I haven't been 'excited' about photography - in general - for a while now. Don't quite know why? Maybe it's burn-out? It's been my passion (sometimes all-consuming) for the past 36 years of my life. And that's quite a long time to sustain any passion/hobby/creative pursuit.

I was talking about this recently with a photographer friend of mine, and I can trace my loss of interest in photography back almost two years, to a major trip I went on to Golden Bay. It was a family holiday, but we went with other photographers, so it was always going to end up more of a photography trip. And it was. Ten days of almost non-stop sunrise until sunset photography. And I'm not going to lie - I had a blast! One of the best trips of my life.

Wharariki Beach, Golden Bay. Fuji XE2

But I also got back from that trip suffering from a bit of photography overload. And I think it's taken a couple of years to recover if I'm honest.

To be fair - COVID didn't help, and we've been through two lock-downs here in New Zealand since getting back from the Golden Bay trip. And then there was the issue that I was having with my E-M1 that meant it had to go in for repair. But as disruptive as those events may have been, I really think that photographic burn-out is the root cause for my relative disinterest over the last two years.

However, a recent trip to a local forest with my wife may have changed all that. At least I'm hoping it has...

Hygrocybe Firma - Canoe Cove Walk, Westland.
Olympus E-M1 with Panasonic 12-35mm. f/3.5 @ 1/100th, ISO 800

We have been having glorious weather so far this summer, so while I was on holiday over the Christmas/New Year period we decided to make the most of it and go on a few walks. It had been a while since we had visited the Lake Kaniere region in South Westland, so we decided to do a few short walks there - starting with the Canoe Cove Walk.

I took my EM-1 with me, more out of habit than the expectation of a good photo. And we were only 5 minutes into a 15 minute walk when my wife stopped me and remarked on the beautiful red mushrooms that she had spotted next to the path.

To be honest, I hadn't seen them at all, and would have continued on straight past them if she hadn't seen them and stopped me. And to be fair, they were tiny. Only about 5 to 10mm in diameter. But my wife had seen them. And once she stopped me and showed them to me, something sparked in me again and I knew I had to try and photograph them.

Hygrocybe Firma - Canoe Cove Walk, Westland.
Olympus E-M1 with Panasonic 12-35mm. f/3.5 @ 1/60th, ISO 800

Just so we're clear, I know these aren't great fungi images. By any stretch of the imagination. They are what they are - record shots. I know I can do much better. And that's the point. I'm fired-up, photographically speaking, to want to do much better.

For a start, they weren't taken with a macro lens - just the Panasonic 12-35mm f2.8 that I happened to have on the camera at the time. A stellar lens btw... just not the 'ideal' fungi photography lens.

Also, the composition isn't great, since I took them hand-held, didn't have a tripod with me, and wasn't about to start lying down in the middle of the forest track. This was a recreational walk that sparked a photographic interest - one I intend to pursue in greater detail in 2022.

Pluteus Velutinornatus - Canoe Cove Walk, Westland.
Olympus OM-D E-M1 with Panasonic 12-35mm lens. f/4.5 @ 1/500th, ISO 800

I took a few macro fungi images in 2021, and also enjoyed the experience. I even blogged about it here and here. Macro photography has always looked a lot of fun, but at the same time, also seemed like some strange and dark art? I have owned one or two dedicated macro lenses over the years, but I've never really made good use of them, or explored the genre with any real intention or purpose. And yet I've always enjoyed it, and liked the results - even with my meager understanding. So I think 2022 is the year to take this macro stuff a bit more seriously!

I'll write about what that means, and might look like gear-wise, in my next post. But for now I'm just jazzed that I'm finally getting excited about photography again!

New Zealand Native Tree Fern. E-M1 with 12-35mm. f/2.8 @ 1/200th, ISO 800

Of course if you go into the bush, fungi isn't the only thing you'll find. Thought I would finish this post with my favorite image from the walk - a tree fern frond. These are beautiful plants that grow in the New Zealand bush, and I always try to get a photo of the frond unfurling when I find them. This one turned out particularly well (if I do say so myself). So I guess fungi won't be the only thing I will point my camera at when I'm out in the bush this year 😀