The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
My first focus stack with the new camera - 12 images and such incredible detail. So happy it turned out to be an Indian Pipe in the backyard. While shooting it 4 otters popped up in the river just behind me and gave me a disdainful snort before moving off. I was in their favorite bit of the backyard. But they will be back.
Specific Feedback
Stack look ok? Did I miss anything?
Technical Details
Tripod & internal focus bracketing w/4 step.
Lr for some basic adjustments to color, clarity & contrast using a couple of masks. Zerene for the stack which hardly needed any retouching - DPap w/some PMax, but not much. Then the TIF was massaged again in Lr for better contrast and color along with this crop.
Looks like the new lens is a hit, Kris. Even though I not master the technique of stacking, IMHO, this is amazing. I can not see anything I would change. Love how the soft background sets off the Indian Pipe. Looks like the slight interruption didn’t mess up the shot!
Thanks @linda_mellor - glad you like it. I never tire of Indian Pipe. The lens is quite old, but the camera is new. Since Panasonic hasn’t released a new macro lens or updated this one I hope I can continue to use this old one. It dates from the start of their relationship with Leica.
Thanks @Chris_Baird - some plants are so beautiful when they go to seed aren’t they? I’m lucky I didn’t stomp this one since it was so hard to see, but I was photographing something else when I saw it and so …
Thanks @Diane_Miller - yeah we have quite a bit of Indian pipe scattered throughout the woods in the yard. I love having it around. The otters, well, kinda. Their poop is lethal! But they are adorable and I heard a splash and a snort then a squeak and knew they were nearby. Looked over my shoulder and there they were periscoping and checking me out. Silly things.
The poop part sounds like aquatic possums. The adorable part, not so much.
A friend has a possum problem. She has a wisteria tree that leans on her roof and she has to to hire professionals with hazmat suits to clean out her gutters.
Thannks @Diane_Miller & @Mark_Seaver - I was so thrilled to find a seed pod with dried petals attached. So often they fall off as the plant dries up and the pod splits. I will now chuck the source images as the stack looks good to eagle eyes.
I have never seen an opossum up this way, but I think they are around generally. The otters are great fun until poop…they are like dogs that eat fish…very smelly and it basically kills anything it touches (like grass for example). But on the plus side, I think if I stick my blind down a little ways from the shoreline, I can get photos of them. Will wait until it’s a little warmer to try.
Beautiful detail in this plant, Kris. I really like the tonality of the image. Given how the stack worked on most of the plant, I’d be tempted to remove those two out of focus partial leaves at the bottom as the sharpness of the rest contrasts rather strongly with them.
Thanks @Dennis_Plank - the colors are quite harmonious in this and I think it works kind of well. Hadn’t spotted the OOF leaves since they sort of blend, but maybe I’ll have a go at making them disappear.
Kris what a wonderful look at this Indian Pipe. Nice stacking work. Excellent detail and colors in both the plant and the BG. I too am envious of your otter problem. I’ve experienced other symptoms of Giant Otters’ presence in the past at the LA Zoo. . . I guess they are fairly closely related to skunks and weasels.
I’m guessing that stacking was high on your list of priorities when getting the new camera. This is a cool shot - I like how you placed it a little off-center. Now we’re waiting with baited breath for your otters!
Thanks @Ed_Williams & @Mike_Friel - yeah, stacking is definitely something I need and it hasn’t changed at all with the G9 M2 albeit the image resolution is higher so that’s an improvement. I wasn’t absolutely sure about the composition here, but it felt and looked right both when I framed it up and adjusted in editing.
I can’t promise on the otters, but I can make the attempt. I’ll go look for a good place to stick the hide and wait for things to warm up a bit, maybe in the next few weeks. They are indeed mustelids like weasels, but skunks are now in their own family called Mephitidae as genetic research found they are not related after all. I have zero skunk photos and would love to get some someday.
Kris: I’m late to this party but wanted to add my kudos. Sometimes those old lenses work phenomenally well. I have a 25 year old 100mm and only slightly younger 200mm Minolta macros. I’ve probably taken more images with that 200mm than the rest of my lenses combined. With my mirrorless camera I’ve gravitated to using the 70-200 with tubes for a lot of my flora and macro work but it took a lens of that quality to rival the old prime. Congrats on a superbly crafted image. >=))>
Thanks @Bill_Fach - the lens I used for this isn’t quite that old, but I do have some 70s and 80s Olympus glass from my film days. I shot with the 90mm f/2 macro on various digital bodies for about 10 years. Then the aperture ring got really stiff and then stopped working altogether. I had it repaired, but the guy who did it said he could only do it once and that it would eventually become unusable by using it. So I retired it and got a c. 2010 Panasonic/Leica macro that will do more of the automatic bracketing and fancy stuff and it’s just as sharp and bright although a lot smaller. Have tried tubes with a few of my other lenses like the 35-100, but not too often.
I’d love to have some!! I never even smell them here and I did a lot in NH. It’s weird. Same with many bird species we were dirty with in NH and zip here in WI and relatively the same latitude. No Mountain laurel either. Must be another element at work like soil composition or something that makes the environment all wrong.
