In our search for fungi on the far south coast, the Fungi Feastival has unearthed many skilled fungi photographers living locally. Teresa & John Van der Heul, Narooma-based naturalists have specialised in the study and photography of fungi for more than 25 years. This year Julie Marten’s ‘Fungi and Snail’ photograph was selected for the annual Eurobodalla Regional Botanic Garden calendar. Graphic designer and photographer Chris Westoll has exhibited and won awards in the Eurobodalla Garden’s annual photographic competition with his fungi images.
Andrew Larkin grew up with cameras but started getting a bit more serious with photography in the mid 1980’s. He bought one of the first Canon autofocus SLRs (EOS 620) and started working digitally in the early 1990’s with scanned film and prints. Andrew bought the first of the digital SLRs to come to market (Canon EOS D30) and went through several generations of DSLR with Canon (10D, 5D, 5dMkII) before adding a Sony mirrorless system. Over the decades, Andrew has covered motorsports, weddings, street, landscape, and macro photography. Andrew has experience teaching photography, print making and colour management.
Andrew discovered the joy of photographing fungi and will be facilitating two Fungi Photography Workshops for the Fungi Feastival. The first workshop is at Bournda Environmental Education Centre in Wallagoot on Sunday 18th June and the second workshop is at Club Narooma on Saturday 8th July. Workshop participants will learn how to treat mushroom supermodels like the fungal stars they are. Andrew will induct participants into the advanced photography features of your DSLR or Mirrorless camera and show you how to use them to create ‘wow’ shots of your best fungi friends.
For more information on Fungi Feastival Photography Workshops visit https://www.fungifeastival.com.au/arts
The Fungi Feastival co-founders would like to give special thanks to our sponsors for supporting the establishment of the inaugural Fungi Feastival in 2023: Mumbulla Community Foundation, Bega Valley Shire Council, Global Giving and the Australian Government; Tilba Area and Narooma Chambers of Commerce; Sugar Bush Creative, Collective Cultures and Gulaga Gold.
Above: Andrew Larkin’s first encounter with Ghost Mushrooms (Omphalotus nidiformus) at Bournda National Park. Discovered in an afternoon in April, returned in the evening to photograph their night-time show. The glow from this flush of mushrooms was very faint and was dominated by near full moon. Taken with a Sony A6400 APS-C camera with a 35mm lens at f/2.8 and a 10 minute exposure, ISO 800.
Above: Andrew Larkin’s pine forest encounter at Cathcart, an old stump that was hosting about half a dozen different fungi species. Later in the afternoon, the sun shining through gaps in the forest trees created these very short sunny highlights that spotlighted this tiny group of orange fungi on the edge of the moss-covered stump. Taken with Sony A6400 APS-C camera, AstrHori 85mm Full Manual Tilt Macro Lens, 1/30 exposure, ISO 400.
