Monday macros

From what I can find in our mushroom book, this is un coprin chevelu (coprinus comatus), known as a shaggy ink cap or shaggy mane mushroom in English. These are supposedly good mushrooms to eat young, but this one has gone beyond that stage. I see lots of edible youngsters out there, pushing up from under the leaf litter. I won't be trying any.

Coprin chevelu, 100mm (macro), f/2.8, 1/250s, ISO 3200.

I've noticed that many of my macro and 50mm shots have very high ISO settings. This often makes the images "noisy" or grainy. I can fix that a little in post-processing, but the end result is never as crisp as I'd like. The reason for the high ISO is that the camera is hand-held when I take the photos. The light level is often very low during our morning walks this time of year, so I need a wide aperture and a fast "film speed" to get the exposure right. Not to mention that I need a fast enough shutter to minimize the effects of camera shake. I think that if I used a tripod, I could lower the ISO, close the aperture down some, and use a slower shutter for a crisper photo with more depth of field.

This morning is the chilliest morning we've had in a while with a temperature of 4ºC (about 39ºF). Not very cold for a late December morning. Normally we'd see temperatures much closer to freezing (0ºC) early in the morning. Our unusually warm winter continues.