Ribes sanguineum

The hedge opposite me is starting to come to life after its Winter rest.




One plant caught my eye.
59 focus stacked photos of Ribes sanguineum, the flowering currant.

The Rusty Nut

Still experimenting and improving the macro focus stacking (hopefully).

16 focus stacked RAW photos using Helicon Focus - Method A (weighted average)
There are two other methods of stacking: Depth Map and Pyramid.



The nut measures approximately 12mm across.
For all the previous photos I used an LED anglepoise type lamp for illumination.
This time I used a mains operated LED ring light that I had forgotten all about.
It fits the stacking set up perfectly and has adjustable brilliance.
The camera was set to depth of field priority and manual focus.

Drosera

Drosera is a family of carnivorous plants know as Sundews.

My plant has been growing well in the unheated conservatory.
This is Drosera capensis alba - Cape Sundew

 

It is one of the easiest to grow and is happy with the heat in Summer and the cooler / cold temperatures in the Winter. The main care point is keeping it moist all the time. I always keep the saucer topped up with rain water. During the Winter I also use the water from the de-humidifier I sometimes run in the conservatory.

The slender leaves are covered in a mass of very sticky globules which catch any unwary small flies which land on a leaf.

 

A fly's eye view



From experience  I can vouch that they are very sticky.

Sempervivum

Many years ago I had one small clump of Sempervivum growing in a pot.
Over the years it has appeared all over the place.
Presumably self sown seeds. Much of it is growing in the gravelled front garden.
It relieves the bareness of gravel.
Obviously it doesn't need much in the way of soil.
There is a membrane under the gravel.



Macro



A close crop of the above photo

Helicon Focus

Helicon Focus is a focus stacking program available for Windows and Mac.
Not cheap at $200 + taxes but it does handle CR2 RAW photos from the Canon M5 as well as JPG.
Processing JPGs is very fast. RAW photos take a lot longer as the program uses an Adobe converter to convert CR2 to DNG for use in  processing. It is worth the wait though for the extra quality.
Output files can be DNG, TIFF or JPG.

Even the JPG stacking is a vast improvement over the other programs I have.

This from stacking 36 JPG shots in Zerene Stacker


The same JPG shots processed in Helicon Focus


This time a stack of 70 RAW shots


of a rather dried up Chinese Lantern seed case.

Corkscrew Hazel

Some of the catkins on my Corkscrew Hazel bush are opening as are the flowers.



I brought one piece indoors to take some close shots.
The crimson flowers are minute as can be seen here:




A macro shot of the male catkin which produces the pollen.




A macro view of the minute female flowers.



There are several flowers in each bud.

Monday Mystery

For a while I thought last week's mystery photo

 

might have been another winner for me.
Nice though to be proved wrong by Dave, Ellen D and The Weaver of Grass who saw it was salt.
I picked this up from the footpath one morning after the local authority had salted the road.
Thanks to all who had a go at identifying it.

This week here is

 

part of what?

If you think you know, or would like to make a guess, please leave your answer in the comments.
They will be revealed, along with the answer, next Monday.