It never rains

AINFALL PROVED A mixed blessing for two of our correspondents while on assignment for this issue. Nature photographer found that two years of abundant La Niña rains have delivered fungi aplenty in the moist, dark environments where he often plies his trade. Isaac, who has been regularly shortlisted in, or ghost fungus, and is the largest glowing mushroom in south-eastern Queensland. I’d photographed it previously in small clumps of up to four or five brackets. This night there were hundreds growing halfway up a 25m rainforest tree. I was speechless: the full moon illuminating through the thick mist delivered a scene I will never forget. Setting up the camera, I had to tiptoe around 40 of Australia’s largest land snail, the panda snail, slowly making their way towards a glowing green banquet. I guess it’s obsession that drove me to spend four hours uncomfortably kneeling until the wee hours of the morning. It’s nights like this that make it all worth it.”