Getting down & dirty with your cameraphone.......
In Macro Mode With the Magic of Mushrooms
If my title happened to get your heart racing and your palms sweaty, you will be sorely disappointed, and I apologize for that. This article is nothing more than discussing the use of macro mode on your digital camera or your cameraphone for catching close up shots of smaller or detail oriented photo opportunities!
This past weekend provided me the opportunity to observe and record a yearly phenomenon on the forested floor in front of our cabin at the lake. It only occurs once or twice during the summer depending on our rainfall totals, and this August has so far been bountiful in the rainfall amount for our area. And so the magic happened in front of our eyes and I took my 2012 Motorola Droid Razr Maxx Smartphone smack dab into the dirt to catch some of these fairy like shrooms that were magically appearing left and right.
If your camera has a macro setting, you can experiment with tiny objects and find the "sweet spot" of distance from the lens to the object where the perfect image resides, usually somewhere between 4-8 inches on a lot of smartphones and digital cameras. Next time you are suffering writers block or need a break from WA, grab your smartphone or digital camera and give the macro function a try. Whether in your garden, lakeside, trail-side, or city side, you will find something worthy of taking photos of, with this fascinating form of photography!
In nature photography such as this, prepare to get down and dirty with your subject, for to get those really special shots, you must sacrifice your body to get into some of the positions needed. I spent 2 hours taking 158 photos of shrooms and by the time I was finished, I was soaking wet with mud, sweat, and tears, from contorting my body around trees, through brush, and standing on a steep slope in weird positions while maintaining shot composure.
I hope you found this article interesting and informative in some small way, and if you have never gotten into macro, give it a "shot" sometime, just don't be surprised if you become hooked!
Jack Perry :)
Recent Comments
14
Beautiful pictures and very good quality for a phone, my grand children would have loved it and would have been saying its where the fairies live lol.. well done
Yes Katie, there are several areas' where you could definitely picture the fairies flitting amongst the toadstools. There is one place where the cedar trees grow thick and there is a thick bed of green moss covering the shaded ground where the red toadstools pop up and it is a very fairyish looking area, lol! :)
WOW! i cant believe you took those pictures with a phone, there so clear, One of my hobbies is photography. I have a Canon Rebel XSI and your photos are just as clear as my camera takes, Great job Jack:)
I'll tell you what, my contract is up on this phone and I have been researching a new phone and the camera is a top priority with me at this point.
The best macro camera I ever had was a Nikon Coolpix model, but it died on me just out of warranty and that really put me off. But being the macro lover I have become, I am rethinking how it may be worth sinking the money into a Nikon camera again, even if it only lasts 3 years, I can get a load of awesome pictures built up in that timeframe.
My wife bought me a Canon Zoom point and shoot model that I have not used enough to get used to yet, the little bit I have done with it on whitetail deer shots has not been as impressive as I had hoped for. I probably just need more time and practice with it. :)
Great post but don't eat the toadstools. I love macro photography and it's something I want to try when the weather is a bit warmer. (Still winter in Oz.) ~Marion
Do you get snow or ice in Oz? I've gotten some amazing macro shots of snow and ice encrusted dried plants outdoors, even just ice crystals themselves. Or you can practice on indoor objects, just for practice! :)
We usually only get snow on the top of the mountains but sometimes we get hail as big a golf balls in the southern cities. Thanks for your suggestion to practice on indoor objects, I'll give it a go tomorrow. ~Marion
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WOWIE! Beautiful pictures! Those colors!
It amazes me year after year what pops up out of the ground around my cabin!