We had lots of Indian Pipe in the woods last summer. When they ripen, the “pipes” point straight up. Here are two views looking down on the ripening seed heads.
3 fold rotational symmetry (15 shot stack, cropped to square)
diagonal symmetry (30 shot stack)
oh Mark you got me with these! I’ve been shooting Indian Pipe for over a decade and love this straight up pose they do. You’ve got the stacks done beautifully as usual and I like the way the muted colors present here. I can’t wait for ours to reappear although I do love shooting them in snow, too. Really gorgeous. The only thing I might play with is lightening the left side of shot 1 - the shadows and darks.
Outstanding shot, Mark. I don’t believe I have ever seen this plant before. Love the perspective and the detail you always get with your stacked images. I’m still working on my stacking techniques, with mild success. These are amazing, especially zoomed in.
Wow. This is a very interesting plant. I don’t think I’ve seen it before. Now I wonder if that’s due to my inattention, or if we don’t have those here. I’ll have to be on the lookout.
I think I prefer the second image (of two). I’m not exactly sure why, but I think it’s the slightly more muted colors and also the extra dimension of the “leaves” (if that’s what they are) coming out from the round centers. I need to try stacking more, but there are so many things to learn I often don’t know what to do first.
Mark, I don’t think I have ever seen these either. Really a neat find and you did a super job in your capturing them. I like the second one best too.
Still trying to get this stacking technique, Mark. Do you use in camera stacking software? I think you have mentioned before that you use manual focus, so that would imply to me, you do all of your stacking manually? If that is correct, do you use matrix metering or spot metering? Or something else? If this was covered in your webinar, I apologize for the repetitive questions, I’m just trying to create a system that works for me in this stacking world. Thanks.
@linda_mellor, the R5 comes with “focus bracketing capability”. When that’s turned on, the camera know the lens, the focus distance, and the dof, so it automatically adjusts the focus for the number of images that the operator sets. It does not combine those images and I would not want it to do that because there are many stacks where it’s important to be able to select specific parts to be used in the final “stacked” view. Having a “smart” camera is a huge improvement over making manual focus adjustments.
@karlag (remembering vaguely that you’re from the Midwest), Indian Pipe ( Monotropa uniflora) is a fairly common saprophyte that shows up in late summer/early fall in rich forests with lots of leaf litter. It’s white or pink and between 4 - 10 inches tall and found throughout much of North America.
@Mark_Seaver I’ll have to go looking at that time of year. It seems like by then the local forest is so “busy” that I struggle to find things on the ground. Your description sounds like we should have it though. Good memory, yes I’m in the central Midwest. Thanks!
