Big Burgeoning Mushrooms, Boys, and Bugs
Mushrooms the Size of Dinner Plates -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2007 Jeffrey Eric Francis Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 55mm — 1/90 sec, f/7.1, ISO 320, — map & image datanearby photos
Mushrooms the Size of Dinner Plates

After the baptism yesterday, Anthony and I got together with some other friends, and ended up going to Hieidaira (a small community nestled in the mountains, just over the border from Kyoto, in Otsu) to see some huge mushrooms.

Greg and his Mommy Check Out the Big Mushrooms -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2007 Jeffrey Eric Francis Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 32mm — 1/50 sec, f/8, ISO 320 — map & image datanearby photos
Greg and his Mommy Check Out the Big Mushrooms

Nils Ferry's wife Yoshiko and three-year-old son Greg were with us. I've met Nils many times (such as when he took me to some temples in his area to see the autumn colors last fall), but had never had the pleasure of meeting his wife.

The mushrooms were big and fuzzy....


Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 55mm — 1/80 sec, f/6.3, ISO 100, — map & image datanearby photos
Big and Fuzzy

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 55mm — 1/350 sec, f/4, ISO 320 — map & image datanearby photos

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 32mm — 1/200 sec, f/2.8, ISO 100, — map & image datanearby photos
Life Stages of the Big Mushroom

Apparently, they start out as balls, then start to expand sideways, finally breaking lose at the base of the ball, to then arch upwards.

The final stage in the life of a mushroom this size is normally to be stomped, squished, poked, kicked, and generally thrashed about by a three or four year old boy. These particular mushrooms were miraculously spared that fate.... at least while we where there.

One mushroom ball a bit bigger than a golf ball had somehow broken off and rolled down the hill to just sit there, so we let the kids poke at that.


Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 17mm — 1/320 sec, f/4, ISO 320 — map & image datanearby photos
Anthony Poking At Something

It was a great trip for little boys, as there were also bugs. What I thought was a honeybee had an unnatural and fairly tenacious attraction to my black camera bag.

Syrphid Fly on my Camera Bag -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2007 Jeffrey Eric Francis Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 55mm — 100% crop — 1/40 sec, f/5, ISO 320 — map & image datanearby photos
Syrphid Fly on my Camera Bag

I'd never seen a bee quite like it (especially those eyes... freaky!), but since it seemed intent on mating/eating my camera bag, I felt safe enough to lean in and take a picture. The shot above is a full-resolution crop from the much larger image, taken as close as the lens would allow.

Upon arriving home, I did a Yahoo! Search for “fly that looks like a bee,” and sure enough, a bazillion links about the hoverfly, also known as syrphid flies. They tend to mimic the look of bees and wasps (insects that birds don't care to eat), but are harmless and are considered beneficial to gardens. Bees have much smaller eyes, an extra pair of wings, and big antenna sticking out the front. Oh, and a stinger.

Then there was a kind of grasshopper that looked more like dried grass than a bug:


Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 55mm — 1/60 sec, f/5, ISO 320 — map & image datanearby photos
Can You Find the Grasshopper?

It was virtually invisible until it moved, which it did with surprising speed and distance.

The boys were interested, but preferred smashing an old rotting tree stump.

Boys Being Boys -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2007 Jeffrey Eric Francis Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 55mm — 1/640 sec, f/2.8, ISO 320, — map & image datanearby photos
Boys Being Boys

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 55mm — 1/100 sec, f/2.8, ISO 100 — map & image datanearby photos
Uh, Boys, We're Leaving........

Here's a nice picture of Greg's Mommy

Yoshiko Ferry -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2007 Jeffrey Eric Francis Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 55mm — 1/40 sec, f/7.1, ISO 320 — map & image datanearby photos
Yoshiko Ferry

For completeness, here's one of the only pictures I have of Nils Ferry, out of focus in the background, from when he took me to the Konpukuji Temple last November. It seems that we were both focusing on the pretty colors, figuratively and literally....

A Fuzzy Nils Ferry -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2006 Jeffrey Eric Francis Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 17mm — 1/60 sec, f/2.8, ISO 100, — map & image datanearby photos
A Fuzzy Nils Ferry

All 3 comments so far, oldest first...

Wow, that bee shot you have is Amazing!
Btw, Verena spotted the grasshopper after the clue. I couldn’t and unfortunately I still can’t see it. 🙂 Looks more like a dried up string bean, hehe.

— comment by kuanfu on July 10th, 2007 at 4:47am JST (16 years, 9 months ago) comment permalink

The fungi look like a species of parasol mushroom. Some (note: SOME) are edible and very good indeed. Makes me wonder, do the Japanese eat them? I remember eating shiitake and matsutake (presumably cultivated) in Japan but nothing like these handsome fellas. When I lived in Surrey, England, at weekends in autumn, the woods were crawling with, I think, Eastern Europeans, mushroom-hunting for the pot – not something we timid Brits tend to do!

Peter

— comment by Peter on July 10th, 2007 at 5:56pm JST (16 years, 9 months ago) comment permalink

The mushrooms look yummy (I’m Eastern European after all!).

— comment by Anne on September 6th, 2012 at 6:16am JST (11 years, 7 months ago) comment permalink
Leave a comment...


All comments are invisible to others until Jeffrey approves them.

Please mention what part of the world you're writing from, if you don't mind. It's always interesting to see where people are visiting from.

IMPORTANT:I'm mostly retired, so I don't check comments often anymore, sorry.


You can use basic HTML; be sure to close tags properly.

Subscribe without commenting