Lachnum brevipilosum - with smoky bubbles

Bruce Williams · Post by **Bruce Williams** » Tue Jan 01, 2008 3:59 pm

At long last I have my Nikon 105mm VR macro lens back from repair and so far I'm very pleased with it's performance.

This is one of my favourite fungi for close-up photography. This species grows on the underside of uprooted stumps and old decaying logs. I brought the host stump home yesterday from my walk with Maggy (my dog). The largest heads in this pic are ~6mm in diameter, although they can grow to 10mm or more.

Nikon D80, crop from stack of 10 frames using CombineZM

Bruce

Ken Ramos · Post by **Ken Ramos** » Tue Jan 01, 2008 4:12 pm

Looks like an undersea shot of something or another doesn't it?

Quite beautiful though. I have never ran across any of these that I know of but they look awfully familar for some reason. Beautiful little things. Glad to read that you got your macro lens back, that' great there Bruce.

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Tue Jan 01, 2008 9:36 pm

Very nice!

Is this naturally lit? I'd guess a hazy day with single catchlights from the sun, but it's so easy to be wrong. If this is studio lighting, it's very convincingly done!

--Rik

Bruce Williams · Post by **Bruce Williams** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 10:42 am

Thanks Rik. Well you're spot on with it being a single light source. However I'm afraid I was a bit lazy with this one and just used the Nikon D80's pop-up flash with a sail-type diffuser.

Bruce

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 11:48 am

Good to know -- sometimes simple works great!

--Rik

Cyclops · Post by **Cyclops** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 12:39 pm

Wonderful shot Bruce. I loved the way this hobby can conjure strange new worlds,great for a science fiction fan like me!

Bruce Williams · Post by **Bruce Williams** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 1:38 am

Thanks for your comments Larry.

Good to see you back on the forum

.
All the best for 2008,
Bruce

salden · Post by **salden** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 3:20 am

This is a beautiful image. The lightening is excellent. Just shows the beauty of nature that most people miss.

Bruce Williams · Post by **Bruce Williams** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 1:09 pm

Thanks Sue

You are right, there is so much hidden beauty in nature...and it can often surprise us too. Sometimes a life-form that is uninteresting or even repulsive at normal size can amaze and enchant when seen close-up.

Bruce

Walter Piorkowski · Post by **Walter Piorkowski** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 3:13 pm

Very nice image Bruce. So similar to a subject I have imaged before but past it's prime. I just labeled it a tremellale. You may have just identified it for me. How long do the smokey bubbles stay around and why do they bear that name?

Walt

Bruce Williams · Post by **Bruce Williams** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 4:08 pm

Thanks Walt.

The term "smokey bubbles" is just a convenient adjective that I coined to describe their milky appearance - it's not scientifically significant.

Sometimes these bubbles are present and sometimes not and to be honest I don't know for sure what the bubbles are or indeed how persistent they are. Initially I thought they might be filled with spores waiting distribution by rain splash or similar. However another possibility is that they are guttation drops.

See here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guttation

As to why...well I'm not at all certain about this but I believe that guttation (in certain fungi) serves to reduce the amount of water in the cells to prevent the cell wall rupturing during freezing weather.

...but the bottom line Walt, is that I don't really know

!

Bruce

beetleman · Post by **beetleman** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 12:49 pm

Really interesting fungi Bruce and a wonderful job on the photograph. I am going to be turning over logs all summer.

Bruce Williams · Post by **Bruce Williams** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 5:54 pm

Thanks Doug. Now I thought I'd got the log turning habit from you - or maybe it was Ken?

Bruce