I love photographing mushrooms and other fungi along the various trails I hike. There always seems to be something new to see, whether it’s a type of mushroom I’ve not yet photographed or just an interesting view of one. In the case of today’s post I’m not sure what species of mushroom this is, but I was drawn to it for how perfect it looked, and so close to the trail where people or dogs might easily and unknowingly crush it underfoot.

The first thing I noticed about it was how nice a circle the top created and how great it looked in the area of the forest floor it was growing on. So I stood over top and photographed it set against that forest floor, opening up the aperture enough to slightly blur the forest floor but leave it enough in focus to tell what’s what.

Then I got down on my stomach and tried to view what I could see of its underside. I loved the textures there, both on the stalk of the mushroom and on its underside, those interesting thin layers or ribs. This photo is actually a stitched panorama of two images. Looking back I should have gone a little lower to show where the mushroom was growing out of the ground.

Finally, I was so fascinated by those ribs under the top I got in really close with the macro lens and showed the edge of the top of the mushroom. We can see how the ribs are spaced along the underside. I decided to use an extremely shallow depth of field for this one.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this brief look at one mushroom I found along a trail at Meadowood Special Recreation Management Area in Virginia, a great little location full of mixed use trails for hiking, horseback riding, and mountain biking.

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