Pipe Club Fungus and a Field Lighting Accessory
e6filmuser
Registered Users Posts: 3,379 Major grins
I was recently with a foray group in local Beech woods on the Chilterns chalk hills. One of the group offered to show me the location of some “Pipe Clubs”, a name unfamiliar to me.
The fruiting bodies Macrotyphula fistulosa were of extreme size for club fungi, some nearly a foot (30cm) tall, although of fairly typical thickness.Obligingly, they were in a line, making a choice of any two pairs from three for a frame (too widely spaced to include three).
I took some shots, using triple flash (one on an L-bracket and two free-standing) through my Kiron 105mm lens.
I returned, about ten days later. This time I had my latest lighting aids with me. When using flash lighting it is useful to have some light from above and, sometimes, some from the side, or even from a low angle. These options become more difficult to provide from the position of the camera , especially when moving back for a wide FOV. I have recently obtained a pair of “spikes” which are small monopods, each with an integral tough spike which can be pushed into the ground.
Two images show how I used them for the second session. Allowing for being pushed firmly into the ground, they will raise your camera or flash from ca 25 cm up to 50cm above the ground, a very handy range for macro. My flash guns come with a removable shoe for free-standing, which has a threaded tripod socket in the base. The guns can also be angled downward by 45 degrees.
All my flash units can be, and are for all my macro use, remotely controlled from the camera and metered at the camera. (To show this kit the light from the flash at the camera, which would normally provide the main illumination, distorts how the subject would be illuminated).
I hope that the problem of placing second and third flash guns, often a tricky balancing act, will be largely overcome by using these spikes.
These spikes are available from:
www.wildviewcameras.co.uk
“Adjustable Ground Spike”:
http://www.wildviewcameras.co.uk/accessories
The fourth image is one of the clubs which has shed its spores.
The last one is a detached one nearly a foot (30cm) long
Harold
The fruiting bodies Macrotyphula fistulosa were of extreme size for club fungi, some nearly a foot (30cm) tall, although of fairly typical thickness.Obligingly, they were in a line, making a choice of any two pairs from three for a frame (too widely spaced to include three).
I took some shots, using triple flash (one on an L-bracket and two free-standing) through my Kiron 105mm lens.
I returned, about ten days later. This time I had my latest lighting aids with me. When using flash lighting it is useful to have some light from above and, sometimes, some from the side, or even from a low angle. These options become more difficult to provide from the position of the camera , especially when moving back for a wide FOV. I have recently obtained a pair of “spikes” which are small monopods, each with an integral tough spike which can be pushed into the ground.
Two images show how I used them for the second session. Allowing for being pushed firmly into the ground, they will raise your camera or flash from ca 25 cm up to 50cm above the ground, a very handy range for macro. My flash guns come with a removable shoe for free-standing, which has a threaded tripod socket in the base. The guns can also be angled downward by 45 degrees.
All my flash units can be, and are for all my macro use, remotely controlled from the camera and metered at the camera. (To show this kit the light from the flash at the camera, which would normally provide the main illumination, distorts how the subject would be illuminated).
I hope that the problem of placing second and third flash guns, often a tricky balancing act, will be largely overcome by using these spikes.
These spikes are available from:
www.wildviewcameras.co.uk
“Adjustable Ground Spike”:
http://www.wildviewcameras.co.uk/accessories
The fourth image is one of the clubs which has shed its spores.
The last one is a detached one nearly a foot (30cm) long
Harold
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