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Originally Posted by JennyS  No reason why art shouldn't come into the representation of fungi, or any other life form!
That's a stunning image that would make an eye-catching book cover and there are some beautiful photos showing various named fungi in their natural settings if you take a look through the rest of the images......
Wish I could get some fungi shots that good 
Afterthought - Roger Phillip's much acclaimed book 'Mushrooms and other fungi of Great Britain and Europe' is completely illustrated with studio shots of species. |
Art is always subjective and that was only my opinion - as is your statement about it being 'stunning'.
I also recognise that this sort of treatment is far removed from informative/scientific shots but as far as 'art' is concerned (photographic 'art' that is) I feel these images are a bit of a cheap cheat rather than an effort to achieve an artistic effect with the mushrooms in their
natural environment which is always a plus as far as I'm concerned.
I'm not sure how rare any of the 'shrooms are and if they were taken away from their natural area where their spores would be wasted but if they were then I suspect that a golden rule of taking images of wild stuff may have been broken here and as a wildlife appreciator I really object to this. And all for the sake of 'art' eh?
I'm sure the lack of care and unthinking exploitation of the image taker is impacting on my opinion when I look at the images. I just find it all completely tasteless.
OK - the colours are pretty but a lot of shortcuts have been made to get this shot and it has no gravitas whatsoever as far as I'm concerned.
If you want to produce images like that - pick a few mushrooms, take them to the studio and learn photoshop!
These images of mine have no post processing manipulation and the leaves were already dead and on the ground when I found them.
The effect is achieved with various photographic set ups prior to actually taking the image and a fair bit of photographic knowledge - not through post image manipulation. Nothing amazing or groundbreaking, I'm afraid, but quite pretty colours and patterns without cheating!
Acher