Ghost Fungi ( Omphalotus Nidiformis ) - How to photograph!

Written by Marco Kraus ( Instagram: @marcokraus_ )

It’s this time of the year again. The mysterious Ghost Mushroom Omphalotus Nidiformis is popping up all around Perth. Last year I was obsessed with finding and photographing them, but found them almost always at the end of their life cycle or too close to light pollution.

I thought I’d write a little guide, so you can find them and hopefully photograph them as well :)

What is Omphalotus Nidiformis? It is a parasitic bio-luminescent fungus that grows on dead or decaying trees, although I have also found them at the bottom of healthy old trees.

Where can it be found? Anywhere from Perth, Avon Wheatbelt to Augusta, but also east along the coast till Esperance ( This is for Western Australia only, it can also be found in Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Norfolk Island and there has even been reports from India of it growing on coconut stumps. )

It mainly grows at the base of trees, which in Perth are usually Sheoks, Marri trees, Peppermint trees and Banksia. I personally had a very high success rate finding them on Sheok Trees, often close to water bodies like lakes, rivers and swamps.

A little starting point ( although too much light pollution ) - There are tons of Ghost Fungi around the South Perth Foreshore. A great spot to get an idea how they look like, where they grow and if you cover the area you can even see them glow.

When can it be found?

They can be found from late April to early October, but the best time is usually late May till early August.

They often pop up after rain. But when they have been growing for a while and there has been heavy rainfall for a few days, these older mushrooms tend to decay rather quickly.

How to photograph them?

The best place to photograph them is away from light pollution. ( If there is too much light around from street lights, you could cover the Fungus and your camera with a blanket, cardboard, etc. ). Also consider the moon, the best time is during New Moon or when the moon is set.

When the conditions are right you can see a white glow with the plain eye.

The camera settings I found worked for me were variating, depending on the conditions and the stage of the fungus.

Usually you would want a wide aperture, anything from F1.2 to F4., to reduce noise, Iso100 ( which then needs longer exposure times like 30sec up to 12min) or higher Iso up to 5600 with exposure times from 15sec to 3minutes. If you can see the glow with your plain eyes means the conditions are great. There is little light pollution and some good chemical reactions happening in the mushroom causing a high level of bio-luminescence. This would reduce the exposure time a lot. Likely 30seconds would be sufficient. On an older mushroom, close to the end of it's “lifespan” it took me 12 minutes at Iso 100 to capture some glow in the photo.

A tripod is a must and set your camera to manual focus as usually cameras can’t focus in complete darkness.

An example of settings I was successful with:

F2.8/13min/Iso100

F2.8/5min/Iso100

F2.8/ 1.8min/Iso100

F2.8/ 60sec/ Iso1000

F2.8/ 3min/ Iso400

You can see it variates a lot.

If you find yourself getting bored while photographing the Ghost Fungus and feel like a snack, come prepared and bring some of your own. With the mushroom being toxic, it would not be a great idea to feast on one.

Some examples of photos I took/ how they look like: ( I will be adding more photos soon! )

If this guide helped you to photograph the Ghost Fungus, feel free to tag me on social media :) Would love to see your results.

Enjoy the mushroom hunt!