Botanic Gardens Cambridge

I concentrated on multiexposures and focus-stacked closeups during a visit to the Gardens this morning.

Jelly, Curtain and Bracket Fungi From Sandy Bedfordshire

Beautiful sunlight for macro photography at Sandy RSPB grounds yesterday and a good selection of the small fungi and mosses to explore with a close-up filter on my Fuji 23mm compact camera. This combination is very sharp and at F16 gives sufficient detail in the subject plus some separation. Except on the Candlesnuff fungus, I didn't notice all the dew drops when taking the photos!! Neither did I spot the small beetle in the second image.

Close-up at Botanical Gardens

I was using an  Olympus OM-System 50mm 1.8  legacy lens (lefthand images) on Saturday at the Gardens as I needed some images for a talk I am giving next week. I took most shots with a comparison image using my Fuji dedicated 50mm Zeiss Touit lens (righthand images). I always enjoy the soft pastel colours and backgrounds from the Olympus lens (both are used wide open).

In the Wood with the Hosebaby Lens

I spent an hour in our local wood with my home-made close-focus shallow-depth-of-field lens (Hosebaby) taking multiple shots while moving myself forwards or backwards. The set of images were then focus stacked with Zerene stacker. Here are a selection of images that I liked of Hazel female flowers, umbel seedhead, oak apple, rose hip, oak leaves, lichens and teasel with ladybird and against the light with the interesting bokeh.

Soft Focus with the Hosebaby

Back in June I made myself a camera with a moveable lens to play around with soft focus and focus points using a flexible vacuum cleaner hose. Decided to give it another go, with some flowers I had been given. The focus point can be moved anywhere in the frame by flexing the hose - see set up at end.