During the summer I spent a few days camping in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. One night in Sugarloaf I, one in Franconia Notch and the last night at Dry River Campground, near Crawford Notch. I wasn’t sure when I arrived what would pique my interest photographically, but within minutes of my first hike I had spotted my subjects.
The area had experienced an incredible amount of rain, and the forest floor was lush with fungus. I became immediately obsessed with mushrooms! The dichotomy of the forest fascinated me. On the large scale, giant pines with families of smaller trees surrounding. Then, on the forest floor, a similar family of fungus.
On the first day I was fortunate to have some sunlight. The first image at left shows a perfect mushroom, dry, with a small bite that had been nibbled out of the top. The sunlight just happened to cast a spotlight on this little guy and the surrounding pine needles.
For many of the pictures I had to lie down in the muck, to get the “eye-level” photo. For this particular shot, the rain was pouring down on me, and as you can see it was dark. So I cranked up the ISO and found a sturdy stick to use as a monopod. I was soaked by the time I was satisfied that I had a decent photo, but this little family of mushrooms was, to me, far more interesting than the waterfall just a few feet away.
