It usually isn't hard to find mundane fungi and mushroom subjects for mushroom photography (just snap some pictures of the dry rot eating away at the wood in your basement), but it isn't always easy to find fungi subjects 'worthy' of fine art mushroom photography or to capture wild mushroom photographs which will provide the enhanced digital images from which wild mushroom art prints can be printed. While mushroom mycology means that one may well find several kinds of unwanted fungi growing in a dank corner of the basement, fortunately the fungi kingdom is diverse and fungi grow in many more aesthetically appealing and enriching environments suitable for mushroom photography, not only in the forest, but in grasslands (e.g. field mushrooms) and many other more rich and colorful locations as well. In order to find the raw materials from which to build the master mushroom photograph for a C Ribet wild mushrooms art print, both luck and art must come together to provide the mycological micro-environment around the mushrooms which will give the mushroom photograph the character to grow from a mere mushroom photograph through a mushroom photograph master and eventually to a final wild mushroom art print. Creating wild mushroom art prints from wild mushrooms are a special kind of mycological adventure. Finding the wild mushrooms for the prints is just the first step in the mushroom photography process. Luckily the mycological world of mushrooms and the fungi kingdom is broad and there is no shortage of fine subjects for wild mushroom art prints.
Mushroom Art for Sale by Artist C Ribet 05
Many things which some might view as hassles are in fact what make the process of stalking mushrooms for fungi watercolor art appealing, while other difficulties and technical problems are and always will be just simple drudgery and trouble. There is a certain practical challenge involved in squirming into a moldy patch of forest debris while chasing the perfect angle on a little mycena, but being up close in the natural environment of that mushroom is its own reward too. …
Mushroom Art for Sale by Artist C Ribet 09
While not the case for mushroom art prints, for the purpose of mushroom identification and mycology studies, it is perfectly acceptable and in many circumstances absolutely essential to pick the mushroom. If the mushroom is growing so that the gills are not visible, or if one needs to take a spore print, or if one needs to examine the base of the mushroom stem to determine if it is tapered or bulbous, one often can't do any of that satisfactorily without picking the mushroom. …
Mushroom Art for Sale by Artist C Ribet 13
Sometimes it is best to use the scene's natural light, although this kind of low light photography (particularly under a dense forest canopy) can be difficult. Sometimes it is beneficial to augment natural lighting conditions with a remote flash or a macro flash to complement (or even overcome) the natural lighting and make the perfect art print. …
Mushroom Art for Sale by Artist C Ribet 06
Why is it that taking pictures of mushrooms presents a special challenge for someone wanting to make mushroom watercolor giclee art from these images? Well, it is a mix of technical, personal, and practical reasons. Many of these challenges are unique to fungi art photography (although one might imagine many are also shared by the mold photographer...). …
Mushroom Art for Sale by Artist C Ribet 16
I do not intend my mushroom art photographs and prints to be used for mushroom identification, and, although I am often tempted, I do not indulge in mushroom picking. In the final mushroom art print, I want to present an interpretation of the mushroom which reflects the state and environment in which I found it. This is impossible to achieve after mushroom picking for many reasons. …
Mushroom Art for Sale by Artist C Ribet 14
There is no question that from a purely mechanical and practical standpoint, mushroom picking can make mushroom photography a technically much easier process. However, in addition to physically disturbing the delicate natural features of the mushroom's natural micro-environment, and risking inflicting physical damage upon the mushroom itself, mushroom picking disrupts the scene's natural composition. …
Mushroom Art for Sale by Artist C Ribet 12
My mushroom photography for my mushroom art prints is most often not so much mycological photography of the mushrooms themselves as it is photography of the mushroom micro-environment and the surroundings there. Each mushroom photograph uses a mushroom as either the emotional focus or the primary visual focus of the print, but the mushroom itself may be not of much use to a mycology expert. …