Strange Denizens of the Forest by Promethean aka Anthony Ricchi – Top Orange Gallery

Orange in nature, bright fungi in the woods, picture proof with “Orange Denizens of the Forest.”

The photographer, Anthony Ricchi is drawn to all bright colors and it was the mushroom’s orange intensity that attracted his attention.

This bright orange mushroom is believed to be Hygrocybe miniata which was first suggested by Rick Sanderson who said “Could possibly be Vermilion Waxycap (Hygrocybe miniata) which is edible, but without information on locality, habitat, gill-structure, spore print etc. ID is pretty iffy. Nice photo.”

While Anthony enjoys forest fresh fungi he cautiously did not eat our little orange friends.

Nothing excites my palette like the rich, distinctive flavor of mushrooms. Though I will eat most any edible mushrooms, it’s always fun to cook up freshly-gathered forest mushrooms, provided, of course, that the collector truly “knows their fungus.”

Even if Anthony had carried a field guide it would have still been best to leave this one off the culinary platter. The features that make this mushroom different from others like is are microscopic making it a fungi not suggested for eating unless you really know your Vermilion Waxycap.¹

We had a little interview about this picture:

Yancey: What attracted you to take this photograph?
Anthony: What attracted me to these mushrooms was their vivid and unearthly color.

Yancey: Were you using a macro setting?
Anthony: Absolutely I was using a macro lens. No serious nature photographer should go into the field without one in their camera bag.

Yancey: Do you often crawl around on the forest floor?
Anthony: Yup. Too often I’m the guy coming out of the woods with the dirty knees and the camera.

Yancey: Was this hand held or tripod?
Anthony: Hand-held; though usually I work with a tripod.

Yancey: What do you like about this photo?
Anthony: I like that it doesn’t hold back on its orangeness.

Yancey: That is why it’s a great photo for the Top Orange Blog’s Gallery. Thanks for allowing us to show it.
Anthony: It’s my pleasure.

Camera: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure: 0.005 sec (1/200)
Aperture: f/7.1
Focal Length: 100mm

Visit Anthony Ricchi’s flickr page to see his other works of photographic art.

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1. Kuo, M. (2007, January). Hygrocybe miniata. Retrieved from the MushroomExpert.Com Web site: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/hygrocybe_miniata.html [↩]