More Macroscapes

[jrice12]

A few more macroscapes from this past weekend. Taken with Canon 550D with EF 100mm/f2.8 Macro USM lens. Natural lighting, tabletop tripod.

#1: Orange shroom gives a lot of "vertical" to the image while the moss grass "trees" provide an overall horizontal band. These "trees" have heads that look like looms (or some other waterfoul). Lot of depth to moss covered "ridge" but background is a bit much - would like for it to be darker.

#2: White mushrooms stand out in a field of moss. More of the loom-headed "trees". I think I like using them the same way one might use reeds for a lake landscape shot - standing in bunches. This was on top of a sawed off tree trunk about 1 ft in diameter - image is only a fraction of that.

#3: Orange mushroom with "mountain" landscape. Like from another world. The middle-ground is a fallen, decaying, tree trunk (takes on a dark-blue sheen at some point).

#4: Not really a "scape" but a nice study of a solitary brown mushroom. Focus stacked two images at f5.6. Liked that f-stop for overall DOF but after centering focus on stem of shroom I found the front of its disc was out of focus (the stem and acorns were all set-up to be in the same focal plane). Took second shot at same setting with focus centered on front of disc, then merged using GIMP. Should have taken a third between the two where there is a slight out of focus band across the first 1/3rd of shroom. Like the brick-a-brac scatered to the right-front of the shroom and the moss makes for a lush look. Don't like the skeleton at lower-right (out of place color, shape and pattern) but didn't want to crop short with the wide shroom. Shroom is a bit munched on but that works ok since the acorns in front and right are broken up too - the forest is a rough and tumble place!

 

[spacefuzz]

great DOF control