Christmas Fungus

Critiques [Translate]

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• sherlock628 (241)
• [2008-01-06 15:02]

Hi Billy,
Nice composition, but the tops of the mushrooms are blown-out (over exposed). You might have tried a different POV or used something for some shading - a hat or anything will work. Also the out of focus in the forground is distracting. Your DOF is too shallow. A couple stops down on the aperture would have given a better foreground with still good BG. That might also have helped the over exposure. If you post the exif information, TNrs can do a better job of helping.
The fungus looks to me like Amanita muscaria, commonly known as the fly agaric or fly Amanita. I have one in my gallery that is not yet mature and is just starting to turn the characteristic orange-red color. Great first image with the new camera. TFS
Best wishes,
Thomas

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• rcrick (68)
• [2008-01-06 15:19]

Hey Billy,
Nice to see you back posting, hope you had a good holiday, have to agree with sherlock628 on the exposure, but I actually like the narrow dof it isolate's the subject, and it does look like a Amanita muscaria, I also posted one a while back, though it is generally considered poisonous, Amanita muscaria is otherwise famed for its hallucinogenic properties with its main psychoactive constituent being the compound muscimol. Not something you would stick on a pizza? Good fist shot though and looking forward to seeing more :) Cheers Rick....

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• claudine (0)
• [2008-01-07 6:48]

Hi Billy,
Congrats for your new toy and I hope that you'll enjoy this great camera :)! This is a sharp picture of these Amanita muscaria in a good low POV. The picture is in IMHO a little over exposed on the mushroom’s top and I would have de-centered subjects to make composition a little more striking. Yes, for some people, they could be Christmas mushrooms :)
Claudine

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• Alex99 (23735)
• [2008-01-07 9:29]

Hi Billy.
My congratulations. Your new camera is great and I wish many amazing shots and posts here. Very nice subject, perfect colour palette and soft light, details and sharpness are very good too. It would be better to share EXIF-data. It would be interesting for us. My best wishes and TFS.
Alexei.

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• arfer (0)
• [2008-01-08 20:42]

Hello Billy

A very good composition of these two mushrooms.
The lighting is ok and the colours are very good,the cap could do with a bit of contrast.
You used a very good low POV.
I like the way the fungi are surrounded by the pine needles.
TFS

Rob

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• angybone (7684)
• [2008-01-12 6:19]

Very nice POV. How fun to get out and play with your new camera! Have to laugh at the shotgun comparison...only a Texan would understand that one! ha ha

Good Stuff!!

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• lazyman (1023)
• [2008-01-16 7:01]

Hi Billy,

Well composed and nice color tone!
You show well to us the contrast between foreground and background. And, I think that it has a rich warm shade by this photograph. Personally, parent and child's mushroom is interesting.

Thanks for sharing!

Regards,
mikio

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• jpdenk (333)
• [2008-03-06 17:44]

Hi Billy,

Interesting photo. Amanitas of some kind, but there's no way to ID them to species from just this photo.

I'm not seeing the overexposure that others are mentioning. It appears that the color is restricted to only the lower edges of the caps with most of the rest of the caps being very light-colored. Very strange. I've seen and photographed a fair number of Amanita species, never saw one exactly like that.

Nice shot!

John