It had been way too long since going out in the field to make images. In fact it had been about 5 years since fellow photographer Stephanie Johnson and I had gone out shooting. Why? Well, COVID got in the way and then just life. Stephanie’s career has really taken off and I had gotten busy with gardening. Stephanie and I have always stayed in touch through social media and I have attended a few online workshops that she has taught through Out of Chicago. We finally made a plan to actually meet up again on Veteran’s Day as I was off work. We went to Wildcat Den State Park near Muscatine, Iowa. It was November 11th and all of fall color was gone. Not knowing what we would find, I went with a completely open mind.

During a recent one hour online photography workshop (seminar) through Out of Chicago, I was taken back to when I did mostly macro photography. I loved macro photography! When I lived in Arizona my images were mostly of flowers and almost always with a macro lens. The workshop made me realize I needed to get back to my original passion for photography, macro.

With that in mind, I chose to go light and with only one lens when I met up with Stephanie, my macro lens. I went too light, choosing not to carry my tripod. Thinking it would be a good time to test the higher ISO’s on my camera, and being a lazy photographer, was a poor decision. We were in a canyon area and the light was low. Even with a higher ISO, the shutter speed was too long for handheld. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize how soft my images were until they were loaded onto my computer.

I processed the images just as if they were tack sharp. And then increasing the clarity and texture in Lightroom. My depth of field at times was too shallow. Even so, the images were of pieces of the canyon walls and felt abstract. Almost painterly. Taking that feeling into both Lightroom and Photoshop guided me while processing the images.

Two of the images were so soft that I wondered what would they look like if they were layered in Photoshop? Not being satisfied with the result I continued to play in Photoshop and added a filter that created a more textured look. The first two images below are the images as shot and then the final layered image be low them.

As we were walking along the trail I spotted the tiniest mushrooms growing on a downed log. I sat down and started working the scene . At this point not having a tripod was frustrating. It may have been easier to use a Gorillapod and Stephanie had actually asked if I wanted to borrow hers. I did my best to steady my camera on the ground, being careful to not get it wet or muddy. There were multiple mushrooms and with the right equipment I could have played for at least an hour. A gentleman that hikes there regularly was surprised to see not one, but two photographers using what he called “real cameras”. He wanted to know what I was photographing and I said all the tiny mushrooms. After quite a bit of time in this area, we continued along the trail.

And the final image to share was an absolute mistake. At some point my shutter speed was set to 3 seconds and unknowingly the shutter was pressed. A pleasant surprise when the images were loaded into Lightroom. Sometimes I use images that are textures only and layer them on top of a traditional photo to add depth or to replace a blah background. This image will be kept for that purpose!

Although my images aren’t as sharp as I would like, it was an absolute wonderful day! Getting out in nature away from the office with one of my photographer friends was just what I needed. We both said we need to get together again and not wait for 5 years, especially as we live just about an hour apart!