Focus Stacking Advantages

Good macro photography technique says to get the subject square to the camera (parallel to the focal plane). That's because the depth of field--the zone that's in focus--is very shallow.

The camera was directly above this flat bug, so the body and head are in focus. Click an image to compare pairs. (f/6.7  1/3000s  ISO 800  #5 of 8 images)

Focus stacking most prominently added more of the flower. It also improved the bug's legs and antennas. There are artifacts, too, in the form of a reflection on the left side and distorted petal edges.

 

This fly is not square to the camera. It didn't respond when I asked it to move, so what could I do? I like the shot, though. (f/5.6  1/500s  ISO 800  #2 of 5 images in the stack)

Focus stacking added the fly's wings, the fly's legs, and the stem it's standing on.

 

I'm attracted to bees' faces, and this one was square to the camera. Without focus stacking, that's all I'd have. With it, I got its wings, legs, and hairs on its body. (f/6.7  1/350s  ISO 800  8 images)

None of these struck me as being particularly good... (f/5.6  ISO 800  1/750s)

 

 

 

 

... but the 5 pictures stacked together turned out nicely.

Sometimes I can experiment with how much background to include in the stack. (f/4.8  1/250s  ISO 1600  3 images)

Which one do you prefer? (5 images)

Columbus August 22

These pictures and those of the masked weaver are from the Columbus Zoo August 22.

African leopard

carpenter bee

koala

red-footed tortoise

female Abyssinian (northern) ground hornbill

 female northern (Abyssinian) ground hornbill

Bugs on milkweed

A few milkweed plants came over the back fence to my yard.

This picture is not so great, but what struck me is the little bug on the leaf. The caterpillar is a monarch, and we've never had one reach the pupa stage.

You might think there's something fake about this picture, or that it was made in a studio because of the uniform background. The background is the brick front of my house, and it's so out-of-focus that we get the color but lose the brick pattern. In the previous shot, the blue is from a window shutter.

For some reason, I have a very hard time getting good shots of bees.

Some kind of milkweed bug, maybe.

Some kind of fly.

All shots are macro except the bee. I have a number of macro shots of bees, but they're crummy.

Columbus Zoo July 22

My visit was actually July 23, but "three" doesn't rhyme with "zoo."

dromedary camel

The signage says common ostrich, but the website says blue-neck ostrich.

Saddle-billed storks dance.

At the Columbus Zoo, North America is adjacent to Heart of Africa, so it was no trouble to walk.

A cedar waxwing. This is one of my favorite birds because of its cool sunglasses and jaunty hairdo.

A scarlet tanager, in nonstandard plumage. These guys are supposed to be red all over with black wings. Females are yellowish.

Caterpillars on the bald eagle enclosure. I hadn't noticed these, but another visitor pointed them out, and the white ones were crawling all over the fencing.

A trumpeter swan takes a drink.

A honey bee at work

Wild at the zoo

In addition to exhibited animals, zoos have uninvited guests. All photos are from the Columbus Zoo except as noted.

fox squirrel (Toledo Zoo)

Ma or Pa goose supervises the kids (2018).

Canada gosling (2019)

A great blue heron in the trumpeter swan pond

A gull, species unknown, in the parking lot

A bee flies to its next flower.

A butterfly? A moth?

My best of 2018

Everyone else is reviewing 2018, so here are some of my best photos taken this year. All are from the Columbus Zoo except as noted.

San Esteban chuckwalla

Inca tern (Cincinnati Zoo)

polar bear

Lee, a male polar bear arrived at the Columbus Zoo in November. (Neither of these is he.)

A polar bear and zoo visitors examine one another.

Flowers across the trumpeter swan pond. This photo was taken in September, and they might be asters.

The  foot of a mata mata, a species of turtle

A hamerkop looks quizzical.

rose-breasted grosbeak (female)

a bee

I take 100-150 pictures during a 2-3 hour zoo trip, although I took 297 during my latest trip to Toledo December 15. Some photos are of signs so that I can later identify the animal. I delete horrible pictures from the camera and more after I get home (I keep too many, though). I'm happy if I get half a dozen top-notch photos.