Late winter in NZ isn't conducive to a lot of creepy-crawly type photos. The wet weather however, does mean that fungi are relatively plentiful. Photographing fungi on the NZ forest floor is however a challenge because of the lighting issues. There's not enough natural light to exploit, and if you use a flash it's very easy to get dark shadows blanketing details- or fine details destroyed with the bright light of the flash.

This time I used the Sony Macro Twin Flash with its array of diffusers and arms. This creates a lot more flexibility how lighting can be applied.



With this shot I had both a side light (with a diffused flash mounted on an arm) and an over-head light (also with a diffuser). This soft but highly directed light has brought up the details of the gills in these mushrooms.