Fungi Masterclass

Venue: Sussex/Surrey

Date: Wed 12 October 2012 

Duration 9am - 3pm

Places 8

Cost £99.99

 

I always look forward to autumn and the fungi season. It is a beautiful, relaxed type of photography with a never ending supply of subjects. Did you know there are over 3000 different species to be found in Britain, with many of them common to North America and Europe?

The fundamental principles behind my fungi photography are to come back with images that are as true to nature as possible, that reveal the diversities of form and colour, are technically correct and again, if possible, have a pictorial element to them.

I much prefer to photograph them in the field showing their preferred habitats and growing situations rather than bringing lifeless specimens back to the studio. Not surprisingly I invariable use daylight as the basis for my exposures. In my opinion there is no substitute for natural light and the delicate nuances it can impart to a subject as you can see here.

On occasions I will resort to using flash, reflectors, diffusers and even a torch when the situation dictates but, all the time I am balancing the effects of these “tools of the trade” with the ambient light in such a way that hopefully, you the viewer do not realise they have even been used.

The venue for our workshop is a large ancient woodland complex derived mainly from wood pasture containing mature trees mainly beech and oak and a lot of dead and decaying wood that is left in situ. The site contains a variety of vegetation and, most importantly for us, a rich diversity of fungi.

This wood is nationally important for its fungi assemblage (almost 1000 different species have been recorded there) and is particularly important for fungi specifically associated with woodlands. There are at least 7 Red Data Book species to be found here and in my opinion it has to be one of the best locations for finding and photographing fungi in the UK.

When I was producing my book “Photographing Fungi in the Field” I spent a great number of glorious days at this location wandering from one superb fungi to the next absolutely spoilt for choice. Since then I have run many workshops here and it has never let me down. If you want to find out where it is and why I rave about it so much you will need to book on it ASAP as, I guarantee it will be oversubscribed.

One to One Workshops

If you would prefer to have a 6 hour 1-1 workshop on fungi at this site the cost is £150 per day.