Saturday (20-August-2016) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Nature in New Jersey.

Troll Sitting With the Mushrooms. It has rained almost every day recently, and we have mushrooms popping up all over the yard. Composite of 15 focus stacked images taken with a Nikon D800 camera and 60 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens (ISO 100, 60 mm, f/3, 1/60 sec). Images processed with Capture One Pro and Helicon Focus (method C pyramid).

Troll Sitting With the Mushrooms. Composite of 15 focus stacked images taken with a Nikon D800 camera and 60 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens (ISO 100, 60 mm, f/3, 1/60 sec). (David J Mathre)
Troll Sitting With the Mushrooms. Composite of 15 focus stacked images taken with a Nikon D800 camera and 60 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens (ISO 100, 60 mm, f/3, 1/60 sec). (David J Mathre)

Six-Years Ago (18-August-2010) — California

Photography Techniques — Focus Stacking.

Grandpa Reading a Book at Bodie Ghost Town. Focus stacked composite of 32 images taken with a Nikon D3x camera and 60 mm f/2.8 macro lens. (ISO 100, 60 mm, f/3.2, 1/60 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro and Helicon Focus.

Grandpa Reading a Book at Bodie Ghost Town. Focus stacked composite of 32 images taken with a Nikon D3x camera and 60 mm f/2.8 macro lens. (ISO 100, 60 mm, f/3.2, 1/60 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro and Helicon Focus. (David J Mathre)
Grandpa Reading a Book at Bodie Ghost Town. Focus stacked composite of 32 images taken with a Nikon D3x camera and 60 mm f/2.8 macro lens. (ISO 100, 60 mm, f/3.2, 1/60 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro and Helicon Focus. (David J Mathre)

Thursday (16-June-2016) — New Jersey.

Backyard Springtime Nature in New Jersey.

Poppy Seed Pod. Composite of 16 focus stacked images taken with a Nikon D800 camera and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens (ISO 100, 105 mm, f/3.8, 1/20 sec) using Helicon Focus. The pink in the background is a way out of focus pink poppy flower.

Poppy Seed Pod. Composite of focus stacked images taken with a Nikon D800 camera and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens. Raw images processed with Capture One Pro, and Helicon Focus. (David J Mathre)
Poppy Seed Pod. Composite of focus stacked images taken with a Nikon D800 camera and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens. Raw images processed with Capture One Pro, and Helicon Focus. (David J Mathre)

Four-Years Ago (03-July-2011) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Nature in New Jersey.

Wild Raspberry Cluster. Composite of 20 images taken with a Nikon D3x camera and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 100, 210 mm, f/6, 1/60 sec) with SB900 flash. Raw images processed with Capture One Pro 6 and Photoshop CS5. Helicon Focus used to make the focus-stacked composite of the images.

Wild Raspberry Cluster. Early Summer Backyard Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 100, 210 mm, f/6, 1/60 sec) with SB900 flash. Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and Photoshop CS5. Helicon Focus composite of 20 images. (David J Mathre)
Wild Raspberry Cluster. Early Summer Backyard Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 100, 210 mm, f/6, 1/60 sec) with SB900 flash. Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and Photoshop CS5. Helicon Focus composite of 20 images. (David J Mathre)

Sunday (03-July-2011) — New Jersey

Early Summer Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

I got up early this morning to drive to the High Point monument in northern New Jersey. It was raining when I left, but I hoped that it would clear up by the time I got there. Just the opposite — heavy rain when I got there. Furthermore, the front gate was still locked. I gave up and drove back the long route along the Delaware River. Because of the rain there was very little traffic. I’ve used up most of my vacation this year between the Patagonia workshop with Thom Hogan and the Central America & Panama Canal Enrichment Voyage – Ultimate Travel Photography Workshop II with Michael Mariant. As such, I know that I am not going to be able to do a cross-country road trip this year so it was good to get a long drive in this holiday weekend.

When I got home there was a lull in the rain and I saw that the wild raspberries were starting to ripen. In order to get an image of a cluster of the berries in focus with everything else out of focus I took a series of images using a focus rail to adjust the camera to subject distance over a 3 cm distance with a macro lens. I then used Helicon Focus to make a composite image from the 20 images. The first image is the result. The next three images are the first (front focus), mid (middle focus), and last (back focus) images. Even though there was some (not much) movement due to wind, Helicon Focus did a great job adjusting the images so all of the composite images were correctly registered.

Wild Raspberry Cluster. Early Summer Backyard Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 100, 210 mm, f/6, 1/60 sec) with SB900 flash. Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and Photoshop CS5. Helicon Focus composite of 20 images. (David J Mathre)
Wild Raspberry Cluster. Early Summer Backyard Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 100, 210 mm, f/6, 1/60 sec) with SB900 flash. Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and Photoshop CS5. Helicon Focus composite of 20 images.
Wild Raspberry Cluster. Early Summer Backyard Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 100, 210 mm, f/6, 1/60 sec) with SB900 flash. Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Wild Raspberry Cluster. Early Summer Backyard Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 100, 210 mm, f/6, 1/60 sec) with SB900 flash. Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and Photoshop CS5.
Wild Raspberry Cluster. Early Summer Backyard Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 100, 210 mm, f/6, 1/60 sec) with SB900 flash. Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Wild Raspberry Cluster. Early Summer Backyard Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 100, 210 mm, f/6, 1/60 sec) with SB900 flash. Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and Photoshop CS5.
Wild Raspberry Cluster. Early Summer Backyard Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 100, 210 mm, f/6, 1/60 sec) with SB900 flash. Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Wild Raspberry Cluster. Early Summer Backyard Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 100, 210 mm, f/6, 1/60 sec) with SB900 flash. Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and Photoshop CS5.