One of the more common spring fungi is the beautiful pink Hygrocybe cheelii. On a recent day trip to Mt Field & the Styx Valley we found plenty of them as well as a few extras which were well worth some attention too.

Hygrocybe cheelii, a beautiful pink fungi. Photographed in the Styx Valley recently

All these images were captured with my trusty ol’ Pentax K1, many in pixel shift mode for enhanced detail and colour accuracy. For fungi I basically use ISO100 at all times, and vary the aperture a little bit from shot to shot.

Comparison of the same shot with different apertures – f3.2 on the left and f13 on the right.

Aperture settings for photographing fungi

As you can see above, f3.2 obviously results in a very shallow depth of field with the beautiful blur in front and behind the fungi; f13 gives better depth of field across the fungi caps including the prominent gills on the back one. There’s no right and wrong when it comes to these settings – stopping down is better perhaps if you really want to study your fungi eg for ID-ing etc whereas the shallow depth of field makes everything look soft and easy on the eye.

This one was shot at f6.3 but from a little further back so there is still good depth of field across the two caps

Another option for more detail within a shallow depth of field is to simply step back a bit – the further you are from your subject the more you’ll get in focus with a shallow depth of field.

An overview of a small clump of Hygrocybe cheelii

Sideview with some nice green moss

As well as the cheelii’s there were a few others out and about. Once again I’ve done some amatuer ID’s which I think are right but I could be corrected 🙂

This purple coral like fungi was another highlight. Possibly a Clavaria zollingeri.

Black club like fungi. Possibly Geoglossum cookeanum.

The cold and wet weather associated with La Nina could mean an extended fungi year this year, I’ll keep you posted after my next trip out in the bush!