After seeing all the fantastic images on the challenge last week It gave me the inspiration to give it a go, I wanted to try out the in camera focus stacking on my R6 which didn't go very well so resorted to single shot, where the focus stacking needs auto focus I resorted to using a 12mm extension tube with my old ef 24-105 L lens, I did a couple of stacks with different apertures the takeaways were 1. should of used a timer 2. should of found a better subject, the image came out but had a lot of haloing which I assume was from the camera shake. I needed to find a better background but the most important one would be to give myself more time to play and look at the scene. The first image was a 15 image stack set to 4 increments. The second image is the single shot which I lit with a torch as I left the small rig light at work, I opted for shooting at F4 for this one to remove more of the distractions from the background.

Lately, the weather has been getting increasingly unpredictable, which made me all the happier when the sun finally broke through the clouds halfway through Sunday, bathing nature in its warm light. The insects took advantage of this brief moment, emerging from their hiding places to enjoy the sunshine, even if only for a little while. For me, it was the perfect opportunity to immerse myself in the world of macro & close-up photography once again and capture a few special moments. It was truly a successful photo session. 📷 Camera: Canon EOS R8 🔎 Lens: Canon RF 100mm F2.8L MACRO IS USM 💡 Lighting: natural Handheld, one shot Camera settings: 1/500s, F/5.6, ISO-1600

https://influentialpoints.com/Gallery/Rhopalosiphum_nymphaeae_water_lily_aphid.htm Shot with the Laowa 65mm f2.8 2:1, flash and Cygnustech diffuser.

One of my favorite things about macro photography is that you get to uncover interesting details and surprises you otherwise wouldn't see. Things like the "eyebrows" on a jumping spider, or the "mustache" on a milkweed beetle, or a damselfly enjoying a snack. While I was out with the rented Om1 m2 on Thursday, I captured quite the surprise! When I started reviewing images on my computer, I saw what looked like an attempt at predation by a big wasp on a little wasp. All creatures escaped seemingly unscathed. Now I need to figure out what two species the wasps are... Om1 m2 Zuiko 90mm macro 1/500s, f8, ISO200 Handheld Single Shot Natural Light Photo 1: A wasp and a bee hanging out on some flowers Photo 2: Incoming! Photo 3: The attempted abduction Photo 4: Hold on to that flower for dear life! (little wasp) Photo 5: Lost my grip! (big wasp) Photo 6: I'm outta here! (honeybee) Photo 7: Getting back to it

Well, I do seem to be trying a lot of new things! This time it's in-camera triple exposure photography featuring a Chinese Praying Mantis (Tenodera sinensis), and a thing called Intentional Camera Movement , or ICM. ICM photography is where you move or vibrate the camera slightly during a long-ish exposure. Rather than ruining the picture (although it sure does that sometimes), ICM often produces surprisingly beautiful effects. So here we have a picture of the mantis, combined with two separate ICM pictures of nearby weeds. The individual single exposures are also kept in camera so I could use the same mantis picture over and over as I experimented with ICM on the weeds. It took a LOT of tries with different lengths of exposure and amounts of ICM to get to where the final picture started to look like the first picture, which as always is the picture that we have in our head. 📍 Eastern Michigan, USA 📷 Canon 4D9 (DSLR, full frame) 🔎 Canon 100mm f/2.8L Macro and Canon 50mm f/2.8 💡 Canon flash Home -rolled diffuser 🩸Fun fact: This is the same mantis that I featured here for double exposures recently.