Photographer Spends a Year Timelapsing the Growth of Mushrooms

#spotlight #fungi #jensheidler #macro #macrolens #macrotimelapse #timelapse

Macro Timelapse Shows the Growth Process of King Oyster Mushrooms

Macro photographer Jens Braun has captured cinematic macro timelapse footage of mushrooms he grew at home in his basement over the course of ten days.

Braun, formerly Jens Heidler, is a macro photographer and videographer who has created numerous macro videos of plants, mushrooms, and insects on his YouTube channel Another Perspective, such as his video of growing shiitake mushrooms.

This time, Braun has taken his passion for the fungi world to the next level and created a YouTube channel called HappyMushrooms that specifically focuses on all things mushrooms -- from advice on how to grow them to DIY tutorials, experiments, and timelapses.

His latest video shows a cinematic take on the growth process of king oyster mushrooms. He grew them himself in his basement using a mix that contained 80% beech pellets and 20% wheat bran at 17-degrees Celsius (63-degrees Fahrenheit).

Braun took the macro images with two cameras -- Sony a7R IV and Sony a6000. The process of capturing the footage was additionally challenging because he had to maintain 100% humidity while also trying to avoid the humid air affecting his camera gear and interrupting the clean capture.

To keep the right humidity levels, Braun bought a fruiting tent which includes an automated air system that blows fresh air from outside into the tent to keep the temperature low and to reduce the CO2 level.

The cinematic shots of the footage were filmed with Sony a7R IV and Laowa 24mm f/14 2x Macro Probe lens which allows extreme close-ups and creates what Braun calls a "bug-eye perspective." The camera was also fitted on a slider, although some shots were filmed handheld at 100fps, slowed down four times, and stabilized during post-processing.

For the timelapse, Braun used two macro lenses, although he notes that a macro lens was not needed for half of the shots. These shots were lit with a basic softbox and a 5W LED light.

As the timelapse footage consisted of both 24-megapixel and 27-megapixel images, most of the time in the post-processing was spent on rendering them. Although creating a timelapse video from 24-megapixel photos wasn't a problem, Braun tells PetaPixel that the 27-megapixel footage pushed his computer to the limit and the rendering of those clips took ten times more than the 24-megapixel ones.

More of Braun's timelapses can be seen on his HappyMushroom and Another Perspective YouTube channels and on his Instagram.

Image credits: All images by Jens Braun and used with permission.

#inspiration #spotlight #funghi #fungi #jensbraun #jensheidler #macro #macrofilm #macroprobe #macrotimelapse #mushroom #timelapse

Photographer Shares Tips For Water Droplet Collision Shots

Photographing water droplet collisions can be tricky given that your subject vanishes in the blink of an eye. The process of setting up and revising a successful shoot strategy isn't easy, but one photographer has shared his best tips and techniques to help with that.

Jens Heidler from the YouTube channel Another Perspective has previously shared projects born of his passion for macro and timelapse work, including his 10-day timelapse of a cracked egg, advice on capturing snowflakes, and his macro capture that shows the life cycle of ladybugs and shiitake mushrooms.

In the 10-minute video above, Heidler offers his advice for setting up a water droplet collision shoot, starting with picking out the best tools to release each drop, including budget-friendly options for beginners who want to give this type of photography a go without investing in additional equipment just yet.

Although Heidler uses a Photron Fastcam Nova S16, a specialized high-speed camera, this type of photography can still be shot at home using accessible equipment. Having sufficient light is crucial, regardless of what kind of camera is used, and Heidler opted for a continuous light source instead of a flash because of his high-speed camera, which would require owning a flash that can fire 7,000 times per second. For a regular consumer camera workflow, two flashes would suffice.

For Heidler, the easiest way to set focus is to mark the position where droplets fall with an upright pen, stuck down on the table with putty to hold it in place, which allows him to set the focus with precision.

The beauty of this kind of experimentative photography is that altering each aspect of the workflow, such as the camera settings, timings, the color or type of the liquid, placement of the lights, and more, can open up different possibilities that will produce unique results, as shown in Heidler's videos below.

Heidler pairs the Photron Fastcam Nova S16 with a Sony FE 90mm f/2.8 Macro lens to capture 7,000 images per second, which are then combined. Altering the parameters of his shots, Heidler was able to produce visually varied footage that shows how small changes can create dramatically different and unique results.

More of Heidler's educational and inspirational videos can be found on his YouTube channel.

Image credits: All images by Jens Heidler and used with permission.

#inspiration #tutorials #walkthroughs #droplet #droplets #highspeedcamera #highspeedphotography #howto #jensheidler #macro #photron #water #waterdroplets

Timelapse Shows Enthralling Process of a Growing Shiitake Mushroom

A photographer, fascinated by the fungi world, has recorded a creative timelapse of a growing shiitake mushroom, which shows the fascinating progress up-close.

Photographer and YouTube creator Jens Heidler, who has previously shared his innovative approach to documenting macro and timelapse work of various objects and the natural world with PetaPixel , like the 10-day cracking egg timelapse, has released a new video on his channel Another Perspective, where he recorded a timelapse of a growing shiitake mushroom.

As a self-proclaimed "mushroom fan," Heidler plans to record timelapse videos of as many mushrooms as possible, while currently working with a variety of mushrooms, such as king oyster, lion's mane, poplar mushroom, parasol mushroom, and king Stropharia. The latter will see recorded footage released in near future to follow this most recent shiitake mushroom video.

Heidler says that he has always been fascinated with great timelapse video in the past and was curious how to record video footage like that himself, which is why he entered the macro and timelapse world. He explains that one of the main things that bring excitement when shooting timelapse is that irrespective of a prepared plan, it's likely that the creator will discover something new and interesting as the recording unfolds.

When he started out shooting this type of work, he used a simple GoPro and has since upgraded to two entry-level cameras, Sony Alpha a6000 and a6300, and the full-frame Sony a7R IV. For his lenses, he uses Venus Laowa 60mm f/2.8 Ultra Macro and Sony FE 90mm f/2.8 Macro, which the photographer also uses to take photos from a longer distance at f/16 and f/22.

The two entry-level Sony cameras support apps that allow Heidler to take one image every five minutes, with no limitations, whereas Sony a7R IV doesn't and the photographer needs to use an additional timelapse remote controller with it. Besides his cameras and lenses, his setup also includes a tripod, a dummy battery, and a simple softbox.

Heidler recommends other creatives to start out in the macro and timelapse world with something simple at first. For example, recording cress can give satisfying results because it grows very fast. After that, photographers and videographers can begin to plan the next steps by adjusting the light source, perhaps adding a rotation table or even a star tracker to mount the camera on, or a manual focus rail to add movement.

Although Heidler is currently preoccupied with recording the fungi world, he says that if he discovers other opportunities that would make an interesting timelapse, "the mushrooms will have to wait."

Image credits: All images by Jens Heidler and used with permission.

#ideas #inspiration #anotherperspective #jensheidler #macro #macrophotography #macrophotographyideas #macrotimelapse #macrovideo #mushroom #timelapse