The Photos (and The Camera)

So sorry, but looks like I have to include this: 
If you want to use any of the material found on this blog, well, I wrote it, and I took the pictures, so it's automatically mine, 
All rights reserved ©.

That doesn't mean you can't use it--it just means you need to ask first (and get a response).

Write to this address: mycologistablog (at) gmail.com  

It is a common misconception that "attribution is enough"--it's not. Neither is posting something with a link back to the original. You need to ask, and get a response.

Please don't post my pictures or text in an online article, blog, or book, magazine, or anything in print or online without my permission. You can refer to the material with a link back to this blog (as in, "here is a photo of this thing I'm talking about" with "here" going to this blog--and even then, it's bad form not to ask first), but as far as posting the actual images or text, all I'm asking is that you ask me first. And you really, really should, because my cousin is an intellectual property rights attorney. It's true.
E-mailing a post or an image is totally fine (in fact I would love for you to share my blog with people you think would enjoy it), and linking to the whole blog or a particular post is okay.

Okay! Back to more pleasant things--

All the images on this blog are taken with a point-and-shoot digital camera. Up until May 2011, I used a Sony DSC-H3 (which they don't even make anymore. Now it's considered an "old" camera. I've had it since 2007). It's a point-and-shoot digital camera with a macro setting. Terrific little camera, at least until the viewscreen got hopelessly fogged with tiny scratches from the vinyl zipper on the case...use screen protectors!

Then I got a Canon PowerShot G12, after a year of research and asking other photographers for advice. The biggest reason I wanted a different camera was I lusted after a tilting, rotating viewscreen, for all the times I was at awkward angles in tight spaces, working so close to my little subjects. It has a nice big viewscreen.

I almost always dial down the exposure, up to 2 full stops, to under-expose, so I don't lose detail in bright areas. When they're downloaded into Picasa, I tweak the exposure and contrast as needed. For the record, I do not tweak or saturate the color--no need!--but other than that, what you see is what I got. Really! A point-and-shoot camera, edited in Picasa. If I can do it, anybody can. See How to take crappy pictures in the woods for more details.

That's all. I run off into the woods, take a whole bunch of pictures, run home and inject them into my computer, via Picasa. Hello, 3:00am!

I have a tripod, and I got all excited when it occurred to me that I could use it, but I hated carrying it, so I don't. Besides, most of what I take pictures of is at ground level. Good thing I found it at Goodwill for $10 (plus another dang $15 to order the missing quick-release mount). I keep saying I'm going to get/make a beanbag to rest the camera on for ground-level shots, but I still haven't.

A pal gave me a 3" tripod which I was very excited about but even that is too tall most of the time!

My whole camera is as big as the flash on a friend's set-up, which I enjoyed pointing out to him as he set up his tripod and camera with its big fat heavy macro lens, for every single shot. Once I said "Hey, lemme see that thing" and hefted it. I said some expressive swear words, and handed it back (in his defense, his photos are fabulous. He likes bugs, which are often not at ground level, so he can actually use a tripod).

I used the Sony so much that the finish was wearing off the controls.