Day 109: Baby Fungi

2026-05-26

Hello! I've stepped out of the art market to present a photo of something different.

"This is an intervention. You’re addicted to this marketplace."
- Jerry, via email

The colors have changed a lot in editing, and although I did the color modification and editing on this one myself, I think it might have been too much.

It was actually much easier and more comfortable this time, maybe because I just have a weakness when it comes to indoor lights of questionable quality.

I did use lights of questionable quality this time, even though I was outside. I had two friends shine each of their phone's puny flashlight over the top of each mushroom to give it some clever lighting and make it stand out.

I wanted to use anyone's full display, if it was powerful enough. I'm sure someone out there has a screen powerful enough to be its own light source, and I could just have them pull up an image of solid yellow to be a warm portable studio light. But the phones we had were too weak, and the tablets would cast a shadow.

When I saw these mushrooms, I thought about Courtney Victoria's video that I mentioned watching several weeks ago. In that video, she uses two panel lights to highlight two acorns set in a tree trunk. While my photo didn't have the lighting finesse to pull off the impressive results in her video, it was nevertheless a good experiment and worth trying. Plus, it gave me an excuse to go out in the rain and get mud on my shoes. Always a good thing.

Courtney has published another video, coming out of the April social media hiatus and documenting her photographic journey in New Zealand. Highly recommend a watch, if nothing else to enjoy the scenery and see how an artist pulls the important bits from it.

Cheers,
David