week 36: Early morning at the pond

I originally intended to go on a "Fungi foray" today, which was held by the Epping Forest Visitor Centre, but when I phoned on Monday to book I was told its full up. So not to be outdone I decided to read up about mushrooms and do it myself. Got up at 5am to make sure I catch the early light (sun rise was just after 6, but I still had to get there) and set off. I forgot that sunrise at 6:12 means it won't get light till after that. Hmm, I also forgot that if you're going to walk in the Epping Forest (which is filled with Holly!) you need to wear jeans not some other thin pants (not to mention that it is cold early in the morning and jeans would no doubt have been warmer)

You may have noticed that this week's picture is not a mushroom, in fact I don't think there's any sort of fungus in this photo. The thing is, I've discovered that I'm not really that good at finding fungi at all, in fact the only one I found was after I've given up the search and I literally stumbled over it (well over the rock close to it) while looking for something else.

Meanwhile the sun did rise and it was a beautiful morning, and seeing as I was right by the pond, I found this beautiful scene. 7 Different exposures and some fiddling with Photomatrix and here we are. Still not quite as spectacular as what I saw, but my tree/forest type photos is getting better I think.

As for my mushrooms, well I did take a photo of the one I found, but it wasn't a really exciting mushroom so it'll probably get relegated to my taken-but-ignored photos.