You often go mushrooming with a camera and a collection basket. Why is that?
I take photographs because I just enjoy taking pictures and sharing with people. As a result of my picture taking, people around me see the things that I see, things that they used to walk right past. They start saying to me: “What’s this? What do you call that? We found one; we found one.” That’s neat, to just share, and that’s what I do with all my photographs: share and educate.
And, mushrooms are neat to photograph. You never know what you are going to see on a mushroom. It can be half eaten. You can look underneath it and maybe there’s something crawling. The colors are so vivid. There are so many different mushrooms!
My enjoyment is sharing my pictures whether they are mushrooms or flowers. Everything that I take I share. I love taking photographs. I will go on a hike and take a hundred pictures at a time and most of them are flowers and mushrooms…the little things because so many people don’t see them.
Sometimes I’ll see the edible mushrooms (I know a few edibles!) and they are way up a tree. I’ll say to myself: “Well, how am I going to collect those mushrooms?” At least I’ll have the photograph. I can go home and say: “Look what I found today!” That’s my thing.
What kind of camera do you use and how long have you been into photography?
Well, I’ve had a camera for a long time and have always taken photographs, but, I really got into pictures of flowers and mushrooms when I moved to Oregon probably 12 years ago. Currently, I have a digital camera that has a very good macro on it.
I was taking pictures before I got my digital camera, but I take more now because I can do so much more as far as zooming in. The macro is so neat to take close-ups with. I would say that probably in the last 6 years I got deeper into photography. Also, I’ve got out more into the wilderness and learned more about it. I love to be outdoors. It’s my favorite thing to do.
How has mushroom photography changed you as a person?
Just getting out into the woods has changed me. I’m more aware of things that I didn’t see before – things that were always there. A hiking friend told me once: “You don’t look at your feet when you walk, you look all around you.” By doing that you get an eye for it. It’s kind of like looking for agates. It took me a long time to learn about agates. I would pick up white rocks. Then, finally I got an “agate eye”, and I started picking up the right kind of rocks. It’s kind of the same thing with mushrooms. There are certain mushrooms that were always there but I never saw them. Now, I’m looking more. I’m enjoying them and their colors so much more.
Sometimes people will even call me to come and take a picture of a mushroom that they’ve found. I like that.
Do you use PhotoShop or some other photography software?
I like the natural photograph. I call it “al natural”. I don’t touch my pictures up. I might crop the photo if there’s something that I don’t like in it, but I don’t change the colors. I’d rather delete it than touch it up. It’s my own personal thing. I don’t have anything against PhotoShop because I know that you can do so many wonderful things with it. Maybe when I retire and I have more time, I might use PhotoShop. I don’t have the time for that right now. I like to print out my pictures and make cards with them. I don’t need PhotoShop for that.
The program that I use is Dell Images. I throw my disk in there, pick the ones that I want, and delete the ones that I don’t want. I store them on my external hard drive.
The other day I wanted to make a special card for a friend so I went to my “Flowers” and picked 4 different flowers. Then I brought those flowers into Publisher and made my friend a special card. I give mushroom cards to people, too. That’s something fun that I like to do.
Some day I’d love to sell cards that have mushroom and flower shots on them. I have put a couple of photos in the fair and in galleries, but it’s just hit and miss. It’s nothing that I’m really focused on doing right now. Later on, when there is time, I’d like to do something like that.
Do you eat mushrooms?
I love to eat mushrooms! I pick the chanterelles, but the lobsters are probably one of my favorite to eat. I really like lobsters. I just stir-fry them up. Sometimes I serve them over meat. Other times I put them in eggs. I just like them; I like the flavor of them. They are so bright and bold!
I have some pictures of lobsters that I really, really like that I took at Cape Sebastian. In fact, I was walking there with some people not too long ago who couldn’t care less about mushrooms. I stopped to take some photographs. They came back to find out what I was doing. Later, as we were walking, they started hollering at me: “We found lobsters!” Before I had shown them the lobsters, they had no idea of where lobsters grew or what they looked like. You know how we are: we can just walk and don’t see anything - just focus on where we are going rather than on what’s on the ground. Because of my photography, I’m not like that anymore.
There are some mushrooms that I know for sure are edible. I’ll go out in the woods and get those without any worry. However, I won’t tell anyone else to eat them. I don’t like to serve mushrooms to my guests because you never know how they will react to them. I’ll set a mushroom dish before guests and say, “If you want to try them, fine.” Some people are adventurous. Others seem to be thinking: “I hope you know what you are doing.” I tell them that I only eat the ones that I’ve clearly identified. There is not too much of a chance with the ones that I pick for any lookalikes. Except, you do hear stories about the lobsters, but I’ve eaten them now for 6 years with no problems.
How did you learn about mushrooms?
I always have been curious about them, yet I was also kind of leery of them. I saw an ad in the paper for a mushroom identification class through SOCC. I took one class and learned a little. Then I took another class because I wanted to learn more. I think that I’ve taken the class four times now. Each time that I’ve taken it, I’ve learned even more. I recommend that everybody should, if they want to do anything with mushrooms, take one class just to get background knowledge. There are so many mushrooms out there that are not edible. People can get into real trouble if they don’t know what they are doing. I think that they really need to take a class.
I have a set of pictures at home just of the class. Towards the end of the class everybody had to spread out their mushrooms. It was really neat because you got to see all these great things that everyone had collected. I took pictures of them while the teacher was explaining what they were. That’s another interesting way to learn about mushrooms!
I was walking in the Redwoods for the first time about 2 months ago and saw the cutest little green mushrooms you’ve ever seen. And, so, what do you do, you take a picture of it. Then, when you get home, you try to identify it with your mushroom books, which is a fun thing to do.
There are so many mushrooms out there. You and I know that they are not all edible. Hopefully, everyone else has learned that, too. But, if you learn just a few of the edibles and you have pictures to go by, it helps you to identify. When I go to my mushroom books to identify a mushroom, I look at the book’s picture and at mine and then key out the mushroom.
I’ve met neat people in the mushroom class and on mushroom hikes. I met one gentleman on a mushroom hike who taught me how to fix angels wings so that they turn out like potato chips. I wouldn’t have known anything about them if he hadn’t just started talking. I came home the afternoon of the hike and ate a few of this new style “potato chip”. My husband and I ate them as appetizers.
Incidentally, the first time that I eat a new mushroom I will only eat a little of it. My husband liked these “potato chips” so much that he said to me: “Aren’t you going to cook the rest?” And I said, “No, not tonight.” It’s just what I do when I eat a mushroom for the first time – I only eat a little. Even though the mushroom may have been clearly identified, I won’t eat a lot of it. I want to know that it agrees with me.
How do you turn angel’s wings into potato chips?
Just flour them and fry them up in a pan. Absolutely delicious!
What mushroom identification books do you use or recommend?
I really like the little one, All that the Rain Offers by David Aurora. I have his big one, too, Mushrooms Demystified. I probably have 6 mushroom books that I fool around with. I try to learn a little more each year.
Do you go out in the woods by yourself?
No, because I’m a scardy cat. If I’m going to go into the woods, I usually have someone with me. If I’m going to the beach, I’ll usually take my dog, Sika, with me. She's getting older now.
I need to think about getting a younger dog so that the older dog can start teaching him some things. No, I don’t like to go into the woods by myself. I don’t want to encounter unexpected things.
Basically, though, I’m an outdoor person. I love to be outside. It’s hard for me to sit still for too long. I’m pretty much outside during the winter months, too. I belong to a couple of hiking clubs, but I’m not always out with a hiking group.
Do you have any last words of advice for people who want to get into mushroom photography?
If you want to get into mushroom photography, it’s better to have a digital camera. You can take several photographs and then keep the most perfect ones. I would definitely recommend a macro for the digital camera so you can take close-ups of the special features of the mushroom. Remember that mushrooms have their own personalities. By getting up close and personal and taking the picture, you can see their special qualities.
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