New England Mushroom Photography Journal
From mush.ajs.com
This is Aaron Sherman's Mushroom Journal, a photographic walking tour of New England mushrooms. I mostly go for my walks in the area north of the city of Boston, Massachusetts
— especially in the Middlesex Fells Reservation — but I sometimes venture into the New Hampshire White Mountains as well.
If you just want to go look at pictures of mushrooms, see the mushroom gallery. Also see the gallery of top-rated images on AJS.COM.
2007-11-04 A walk in the Fells after Tropical Storm Noel
Tropical Storm Noel moved through on Saturday, and then Sunday was a beautiful, clear day, so I ran out to the Fells and took some pictures of mushrooms and foliage. It was surprisingly fruitful, as you can see. There were plenty of little brown mushrooms, something that might have been honey mushrooms and some maroon colored jelly fungus that was really interesting (probably the wood ear fungus used in Chinese cooking).
2007-10-28 Macro photography in the Fells
In the area just north of North Border Road, I found quite a few small mushrooms to photograph. Sadly, my camera battery died, and it turns out my backup was low as well. So, there's only a few, but I think they're all keepers.
Especially interesting are these little orange mushrooms that grow in the moss. The only large mushroom that I found today (pictured) was a nearly white mushroom with yellow highlights and a pronounced veil ring around the stem.
For the full tour, see the 2007-10-28: A walk in the Middlesex Fells Reservation album on my gallery.
2007-10-28 Comet 17P Holmes from the city
- Posted by ajs on Sunday, October 28, 2007
An edited photo with Perseus drawn in for context.
This isn't a mushroom, but it's an amazing little bit of history. I went out in my driveway tonight and photographed a comet that recently flared in brightness by 1,000,000X! Even from the city, I'm able to take a fairly decent picture of it. The gallery is located at http://mush.ajs.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=208135
These pictures were taken with the same Canon Powershot camera that I take many of my mushrooms with. For a cheap, non-SLR camera with no telescope, and with city light pollution in the way, these are shockingly clear pictures!
2007-10-18 Blast from the past
- Posted by ajs on Thursday, October 18, 2007
I was just going over some old photos, and discovered this macro shot of a little orange mushroom in some moss. It's a great shot of a really tiny mushroom (barely larger than a hair's width across. I don't take many pictures that come out this well, so this one always thrilled me.
2007-10-09 Cambridge, MA
I was walking down the street the other day, and came across a morel growing in Cambridge next to Kendall Square. I've seen morels in this area before, but never so late in the season! Very cool, but sadly I didn't get a chance to photograph it.
2007-07-18 White Mountains
- Posted by ajs on Thursday, August 23, 2007
We finally made it back up to Mount Dickey in the White Mountains (New Hampshire). It was fun, but too dry for most mushrooms. Still I got some decent shots, and some amazing views. I was also playing with the stop-motion feature on my new camera, which you might enjoy.
See the full report and more pictures at Mushroom Journal: 2007-08-18 in the White Mountains.
2007-07-24 Not yet...
I went for a walk in the southern Fells yesterday, but no dice... all I found were a few slime-molds and a half-eaten LBM. I'll keep going back, as the end-of-summer season is rapidly approaching. Stay tuned...
2006-05-17 Morels in the Fells!
- Posted by ajs on Thursday, May 18, 2006
I was ready to give up, having seen nothing in the Fells on a recent walk, and the, suddenly, I spotted a cluster of the largest morels I've ever seen up-close. Lovely things! I left them there for others to see and enjoy, but for those of you who don't find them, here you go.
2005-10-09 Walk in the Sheepfold
- Posted by ajs on Thursday, November 3, 2005
Here's a walk in the Sheepfold, an area in the central Fells. This was just after a major downpour (I think it was the moisture from one of the hurricanes that had hit the gulf this year), so there was good and bad. The moisture brought out some mushrooms, but many of the larger mushrooms had been battered by the rains.
RIP PHPNuke
- Posted by: ajs on Friday, October 28, 2005 - 22:05
I had some serious security problems with the old PHPNuke setup, so the mushroom journal has been converted over to my Wiki. The original images are all still in the gallery, which is run by a separate piece of software.
Rain, finally!
- Posted by: ajs on Thursday, September 15, 2005 - 10:31 AM
If you haven't noticed, or don't live here, New England has been suffering a drought this year. One bit of evidence of the drought has been the complete lack of mushrooms in most areas that usually have plenty at this time of year. But today, it's finally raining, and hard. Whew! Check out the gallery from my walk a few days ago.
2005-09-05 Back to Dicky/Welsh
- Posted by: ajs on Monday, September 05, 2005 - 09:56 PM
With all the dryness in the Boston area, I thought it best to trek up to the White Mountains for a walk. Wow, was I rewarded! Nothing like making it 10 steps before getting winded from all of the stooping to set up the tripod.
2005-08-21 Long Pond in the Fells
- Posted by: ajs on Sunday, August 21, 2005 - 11:33 PM
This was my first trip to the Long Pond area, and I have to say it was not as fun as I'd like. I love the area, and will go back, but it was hot and muggy, and the recent dry period yielded very few mushrooms. However, I do have some nice pictures to share of the mushrooms that I did see! Enjoy!
Eastern Fells after thunderstorms
- Posted by: ajs on Monday, August 15, 2005 - 08:52 PM
After work, a quick run to the eastern Fells yielded some amazing twilight mushroom viewing. Check out the new album of photos. Note that the images might appear grainy at full resolution. This is because I was taking natural light only shots on a tripod in twilight. It's hard under those conditions to get non-grainy images, but overall, I'm very happy with these!
South Fells in August
- Posted by: ajs on Sunday, August 14, 2005 - 09:30 PM
On Saturday the 13th of August, I went walking in the South Fells, and found some nice mushrooms to photograph.
Site upgrade
- Posted by: ajs on Saturday, October 09, 2004 - 01:42 AM
I've completed a site upgrade. Please report any problems, and I'd be happy to address them.
No Photos: Walk in Lynn Forest
- Posted by: ajs on Tuesday, September 28, 2004 - 02:02 PM
So Lynn has a forest, who knew? I went just before sunset this weekend, and the fungal activity was amazing. Under pine, I saw many dust-red, scaly-capped and stemmed gilled mushrooms. There was a small bed of Black Trumpets. I even saw the largest bed of, what I think were, gemmed puffballs that I've ever seen. Of course, this season belongs to the bolets, and they were out in force. A lot of what looked like slippery jack out there. A great walk. I want to go back with my camera ASAP!
Hike at Mt Welsh
- Posted by: ajs on Monday, September 13, 2004 - 07:50 AM
This weekend, I went to Mt. Welsh again. What a blast! Hurricane Francis had just dumped its final rains on NE, and the fungus was out in force. I had to skip a lot of shots just to keep up with the group, but I got some that I'll treasure.
A Morel in Cambridge
- Posted by: ajs on Wednesday, May 19, 2004 - 04:47 PM
I was stunned to find a morel growing in Cambridge MA, along Broadway in the wood chips outside of Draper Labs. This seems like one of the least likely places to find a morel, let alone a huge one like this. I didn't pick it since there's no sense. I wouldn't eat something that grew on commercial wood-chips with who-knows-what sprayed on it.
10/13/2003 -- The waterfall area near North Border Road
- Posted by: ajs on Tuesday, October 14, 2003 - 12:01 PM
This is my first noon-time (or just after) walk in the Fells with this camera. The mushrooms were very good to me, but I did not bring my tripod, so some shots were just not possible. Still, a good showing, I think and I'm getting better all the time. Enjoy!
