Yesterday I made a trip out to the nearby natural prairie, and was pleasantly surprised. Since my last visit there (4-6 weeks ago), the Missouri Conservation Department had been there and conducted an overdue controlled burn on the area! Over the last couple of years, it has been difficult to cover much ground at this location due to the invasive nature of some of the non-natives. As per the usual controlled burn, the area seemed to be “reawakened” and very vigorous. I saw many different wildflower plants emerging from the blackened ground, of which only a few could be identified. But I also found a few starting to bloom, particularly some Rose Verbena, which I will feature soon. But today’s post is a focus-stacked image, made by combining 14 different images of varying focus, in HeliconFocus. The redbud trees (Cercis canadensis) in our area are in peak bloom right now and I couldn’t resist capturing some images of one of the beauties while I hiked through the woodlands that lead to the prairie:
Stay tuned for more wildflower images from this wonderful location!
Photographic Equipment Used:
- Canon 7D body
- Canon EF180mm, f/3.5 macro lens
- Bogen 3221 tripod, with Kirk Ent. HD ballhead
- ISO 400
- Aperture f/3.5
- Shutter 1/320 sec.