A couple of days ago, I was leaving the woodland where I had been photographing wildflowers, when I ran across some Spring Beauty wildflowers, some of the small wildflowers that typically are very early bloomers. With just a few Spring Beauties blooming, and my need to move on to some errands that needed to be attended to, I quickly snapped enough images of a couple of small groupings so that I could combine them into a couple of focus-stacked images. Here is the result of the 10 minutes I spent capturing these images:
I always enjoy finding my first Spring Beauties of the new year … I love the wonderful colors flowing throughout their petals! An interesting fact about the spring beauty: Native Americans often ate the roots as part of their diet.
I have more wildflower images to post, but my next post will feature a wonderful bird of prey that is now nesting at the edge of my woods … the first time I’ve seen one of these guys nesting there. That is scheduled to be published on Friday.
Photographic Equipment Used:
- Canon 5D Mark III body
- Canon 180mm, f/3.5 macro lens
- Bogen 3021 tripod with ball head
- ISO 200
- Aperture f/3.5
- Shutter 1/200 sec. to 1/250 sec.
- Further Processing: Each of the images were obtained by combining multiple images (7 in the top image, and 6 in the bottom image) of varying focus depths (“focus-stacking”), using Helicon Focus to combine the individual images
Note: If you live near the Kansas City area, you are probably aware that in August we will experience a “Spectacle in the Sky”. We will be blessed with a rare total solar eclipse coming through our area. The daytime will suddenly turn black! Birds, dogs and other animals will go crazy! And people will likely be even crazier! In preparation for this rare event, I will be teaching a one-night class on April 18, that will teach you how and where to safely observe/photograph this wonderful, natural phenomenon. To learn more, click on this link: “2017 Photography Classes”