Steve Axford, the master mushroom photographer living in Australia whose work we wrote about earlier, is back with more stunning and colorful macro photography shots of the diverse and beautiful world of mushrooms. He travels across Australia and around the world to take his stunning pictures but finds many types of mushrooms in his own back yard.

Axford owns a plot of land in the subtropical forested Northern Rivers region that he intends to “to look after and restore to the best of my ability. It is very rewarding and the native plants, animals, birds, and fungi love it. While doing this I have developed a passion for the way things fit together (the ecology). Nothing exists in isolation and the more you look, the more connections you find.” Axford believes that some of the beautiful mushrooms he finds may never have been documented by scientists before!

Though mushrooms are his specialty, Axford has plenty of other nature photos of the world’s wonders. Check out his site for more interesting photos, and read on for his interview with Bored Panda!

More info: SmugMug | Flickr (h/t: colossal)

“I take photos of fungi because I love the forest and it gives me a great excuse to go there as often as I can,” Steve Axford told Bored Panda.

“Mushrooms are amazing. Not because they will save the world or anything like that, but because they are a huge part of life on this planet”

“Of the multi-celled life forms, there are plants, animals, and fungi. There are more species of fungi than there are plants and they are probably just as important, yet we know almost nothing about them”

“It is a whole miniature world waiting to be discovered and it is right under our noses. I’m no mycologist, but at least I can help people to get to know them through my photography”

“It is now estimated that there could be 4 million species of fungus, of which only 1 to 200,000 have been described. Many of the larger species have been described, but almost none of the tiny species”

“I often photograph small species and most of these are not described. Also, many Australian species are assumed to be the same as Northern Hemisphere species, but when checked are found not to be the same at all”

“I have a small shed that I use to grow some of the mushrooms. I set this up mainly to do time lapse and that is still its main use, but it is also good for still photography”

“Some of my best photos have been taken by my back door, which has particularly good natural lighting”

Thank you, Steve Axford, for talking to Bored Panda about your work!

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