This time of the year, with low temperatures and steady showers, is a great time to visit our rainforests.
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The colours can be spectacular on both the trees and vegetation.
Right now we have all colours of fungi sprouting all over the place.
There is a down side to this tough - some of the roads into certain areas are in a shocking condition due to the heavy rain we received early this year. I'm informed they're working on those roads and we can expect to see improvements shortly, but nonetheless four wheel drive is recommended.
When photographing fungi the first thing is to make sure you're well clad. Waterproof pants are pretty much essential - they allow you to get down on the ground without getting wet. It's not just about comfort either, as there are sometimes leaches to deal with.
From what I've read, without fungi, life on Earth as we know it would be virtually destroyed within 50 to 60 years. They are the main recycling agents for most of the dead plant material produced on Earth.
Photographing them is a pleasure I look forward to each year. You should travel with only what you require.
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My approach is to take a tripod that goes down to ground level, Macro lens, camera flash on and a small flash unit for back light and good separation. I work on manual settings usually with long exposures due to low light, my main flash on manual 1/16 power.
Now, with the long exposure what happens is the small burst of light goes off but the exposure continues.
This works well for two reasons. Firstly it lifts the colours and also it lets you take some backlight shots with the small flash unit with sensor at different distance from subject.
Other important points: limited depth of field, make sure you are on the same plane. Any part of the subject that's slightly back will be soft. Also, check your background for objects that will stand out in the final image.
That's it, all you have to do now is head for the rainforest.