Cauliflower Slime Mould Enteridium lycoperdon: Images Added

[Harold Gough]

Each morning I put out food for birds in various parts of the garden. I don't recall this being there before this morning:



The pair filled a span about 80mm wide. This subject responds very well to the Micro Contrast Enhancement in Topaz Detail 2:





The sun was still low in the sky and behind thin cloud. Should I wait? The colour temperature varied a little during the session and I have not adjusted this. The rain started as I composed the final shot!

The substrate is a dead (several years) branch of the Weeping Willow tree, up against it was leaning, placed there for our cats to escape the local foxes. That is a willow tree leaf clasped between the two mounds of slime mould. (Breakfast?).

E-P2, Leitz Wetzlar Elmarit 60mm macro, f11, ISO 200, tripod, time delay. Metering was either off a green leaf and locked or by compensation of +1.7. The brilliant whiteness made focusing exceptionally difficult.

Harold
_________________
Happiness is having the right adapter.

My manual flash setup for high magnification:

http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=117843#117843

[Cactusdave]

A very interesting subject. I've never seen anything quite like that. A result of the monsoon weather we have had in South East England for the last couple of weeks no doubt.

With regard to Topaz detail effects, don't forget:

It's easy to overdo, but easy to moderate to taste using the small, medium and large detail sliders.

Sometimes when you increase sharpness and detail you may need to make a round of careful noise reduction afterwards as sharpening and contrast enhancement emphasize noise as well as desirable detail.

If the starting image already has discernible noise, it's maybe best to minimise that first, carefully checking you are not loosing any important detail by zooming into it as you go, before attempting sharpening or detail enhancement.

These are personal thoughts.

David
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Leitz Ortholux 1, Zeiss standard, Nikon Diaphot inverted, Canon photographic gear

[Harold Gough]

Thanks, David,

I'm not sure about the weather effects. Last year, another genus (yellow) appeared on the other end of the log and was washed away by the next day's rainfall. Rain penetration into wood wiill increase as decay progresses but may be only superficial in fairly solid logs.

At present I'm using the defaults in Detail and single passes. I may have once used two passes of Focus, on an image not yet posted. De-noising before starting is something I will try. I used low ISO to minimise noise but some folk say a long exposure on low ISO can give more noise than a shorter one with moderate ISO. I decide not to use ISO 100. With DeNoise I use only the Light option so far.

Harold
_________________
Happiness is having the right adapter.

My manual flash setup for high magnification:

http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=117843#117843

[ChrisRaper]

Interesting subject - thanks for sharing What does it look like if you get really close to it? Is it a fairly amorphous jelly or is there some microstructure there?

[Harold Gough]

[orionmystery]

Nice shots, cool looking mould.
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Kurt
Tropical Spiders

[Harold Gough]

Thanks, Kurt.
_________________
Happiness is having the right adapter.

My manual flash setup for high magnification:

http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=117843#117843

[Harold Gough]

[Harold Gough]

Twenty-six hours after taking the first images, the blobs seem to have been nibbled by the local wildlife.

Tripod used, ISO 200, f11 for wide shots, f8 for close-ups. Raining throughout.



Detail:





Detail



I would expect the outer surface of these fruiting bodies to darken considerably, and for them to become hard and solid, withinn about the next 24-48 hours, if the damage is not too severe, or they are further chewed.

Harold
_________________
Happiness is having the right adapter.

My manual flash setup for high magnification:

http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=117843#117843

[Ken Ramos]

Appears to belong to the Lycogala spp. but I am not sure. The yellow plasmoida are quite common and are usually Fuligo septica but I have also found some organisms quite similar to Fuligo that are white in color. Interesting set of images. Snails, slugs, and cryptic slime mold beetles are responsible for the feeding.
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Ken Ramos
Rutherford Co., Western North Carolina

[Harold Gough]

[Harold Gough]

After a further 48 hours of wet weather. Some nice fine structure there, an attempt to seal the open 'wound'?:



After a further 48 hours. The fine, filamentous, exterior structure has gone. The internal, fine, granular structure, and the colour of it, is macroscopically similar to that of the insides of a puffball or earthball fungus:





Harold
_________________
Happiness is having the right adapter.

My manual flash setup for high magnification:

http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=117843#117843

[Ken Ramos]

Don't know why but I must have miss read or misunderstood your post on the ID. Getting old, must have been a senior moment. Good set of images here and quite interesting. I have a species, possibly a Physarum genus I am presently trying to ID. As for the cryptic beetles I have an image somewhere among my eumycetozoan files of one of those beetles. If I find it, I will make a post. It may not be a cryptic slime mold beetle, as I am only going on an assumption that it is.
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Ken Ramos
Rutherford Co., Western North Carolina

[Harold Gough]