Buddy

On one afternoon walkabout I spotted a twig on the ground.
What caught my attention was the lichen.
It seemed a good subject for a photo so I took it home.



After a bit of focus stacking:



Once I had the twig in my hand the arrangement of buds seemed photogenic.

A bit more focus stacking later



They looked even more interesting close up, especially the colouring.
The twig was found under an old Ash tree but I don't think it came from that.
The best possibility I could find looking at scores of photos on t'internet was Oak.
As I am useless at identifying trees from buds I am probably way out.

This session the lighting was positioned at about 2 o'clock to give some shadow.

Monday Mystery

Good responses for last week's mystery photo



Not quite a feather duster as suggested by A Brit in Tennessee and Ragged Robin.



Congratulations to  Adrian, Dave, The Veg Artist's husband, Kris and Kev Scott who identified a feather. A Wood Pigeon's I picked up on one of our morning walks.


Three close views for this week's mystery object



which are parts of what?

If you know or want to guess what it is please leave your thoughts in the comments.
They will be revealed, along with the answer, next Monday.

Cypress Close Up

I cut a small section from my tall Cypress tree to take some closer photos.



One of the tiny cones
53 focus stacked RAW shots



A closer general look
74 focus stacked RAW shots


Not sure whether the yellow background photographing nearer green is a symptom of the auto white balance in the M5 camera or the output from the LED lamp. Maybe a bit of both.

In the Background

Backgrounds for macro shots taken indoors needed to be thought about.
For some subjects I like the idea of a single colour like the green used in my last post.
To that end I needed a small frame to which I could attach a coloured A4 sheet.

Looking through my goodie (read junk) pile I found some lengths of plastic box section.



As they were originally for a pole to support an LED garden lamp the only joiners were straight.
I needed right angle corner joints and some feet to stop the assembly from falling over.
Just the project for 3D printing.

Parts were designed in FreeCAD



and the designs process using Cura



to write the instructions for my 3D printer.



It took a few experimental prints before the final design worked as anticipated.



Box sections free standing



A couple of clamps hold an A4 sheet in place



I have a range of coloured sheets I bought about 20 years ago.
I might even get to use some of them now.
I can imagine the possibility of using white sheet with the lighting from behind to make macro silhouettes.
It might be possible to use backgrounds printed from old photographs.
Time to experiment.

Wordless Wednesday

Frogs Have Been Busy

My garden pond is looking a bit full in one quarter



Much of the rest of it is overgrown but with plenty of hiding places for the tadpoles when they appear.

Monday Mystery

I think trying to estimate the size of last week's mystery object sent some on the wrong tack.



It was one of the Tetley Tea Folk's finest



a tea bag.
Congratulations to Kev Scott who gave the only correct answer.
My thanks as always to all who had a go.
 
Now for something completely different, as the saying goes.



This is a close look at what?

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