I have been using Helicon Focus to make composite focus stacked images for several years. It is great for doing macro images with much more depth of field than can be done with single images. I spent the day doing some focus stacked images on some small cactus flowers. The images were taken with a Nikon Df camera and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens. The camera was set up on a tripod on with a linear tracking head. The first set was with 13 images, in 5 mm intervals — which wasn’t enough. The second set was 24 images over 9 cm. That one looked better. I then added a TCE-3 III teleconverter (converting the focal length to 210 mm). The camera was set closer and did 33 images over 9 cm. The slide-show below shows all of the images. It includes one image from each set at a single distance. To see the individual images check here
There are a number of new wildflowers showing up in my backyard. I am not sure of the identification of the yellow, orange, and blue ones. Any help with the ID is appreciated. They could be native weeds, or perennial ones from the wildflower mix that I planted last year. The flowers on the rhododendrons are also starting to bloom. Because of the deer, my rhododendron learned to grow tall — the only leaves and flowers are above where the deer could nibble last winter. I hope to see and photograph some hummingbird moths on the Rhododendrons again this year.
A Brown Marmorated stink bug climbing a cactus. The stink bugs are supposedly vegetarian. The cactus spines are making it difficult for the stink bug to get close enough to suck sap from the cactus. I have observed stink bugs on my cactus plants going back to 2007.