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IT'S A WHAT?
(A false morel of course)
The Voice Behnd The Lens
Writings on Photography and Beyond.
With writer, street, documentary photographer Michael Dubiner.
One early morning in April I was walking my dog in our front yard and I came across what appeared to be several mushrooms in, shall we say, an unusual shape. Not heeding my own advice, I did not have any camera with me. Worse yet, instead of rushing into the house and getting one, I came out a leisurely couple of hours later and the mushrooms had withered in the Florida heat.
Several days later, as I approached my dogs favorite spot, the strong musky smell of the fungus was evident several yards away. This time, as soon as the dog had done her business, I went into the house, put a close up lens on my Nikon D1X and shot away. Because the mushroom was in shadow and I was not using a flash, there was little depth of field. I therefore wanted to get a shot where the plane of the subject was parallel to the plane of the CCD.
I had a few other opportunities to make images of these unusual looking mushrooms over the next week or so. After that, they were gone. The image I chose to show is the one that most closely resembles the male sexual organ, which is what originally drew these fungi to my attention.
I did some research on the Web into this uncommonly shaped mushroom. I learned that what I was seeing was likely a false morel. An edible morel is a mushroom that, as it's name implies, can be eaten. A false morel is a mushroom that resembles, and is occasionally mistaken, for the edible morel, with sometimes disastrous results. They are often poisonous.
Further research seems to indicate that the mushroom I was photographing was the Verpa Bohemia or possibly the Verpa Conica. However, I stand to be corrected. As many of the sites I reviewed stated, consultation with an expert is necessary to determine exactly whether the mushroom you are observing is the one you think it is. No matter, I was not at all interested in eating the unusual find.
Again, have that camera available. You never know what exceptional image opportunities you will come across, sometimes in your own yard!
(The author, Michael Dubiner is a professional image maker and lawyer who lives in Wellington, Florida. His articles will appear twice monthly on PixiPort. His work can be seen at PixiPort.com and at his web site, duby.com.)
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