I have been playing with the 'focus stacking' in the newish Sony a7R5.  It seems to work well and still am not able to get the closer edge in sharp focus - take a look at the images below.

 

oxalis, pink

Christmas cactus, buds

Christmas cactus, full bloom

The center image is the early bloom of the bottom image.

We have taken to traveling to Greenville, SC, a mid-size city about 60 miles from us. It has a water fall in the middle of town - never heard or seen anything like it.

And I have posted it in a large format, click on it to see the full size.

And spring reared Her head last week with the blooming of a Magnolia tree:

And her orchids are growing as fast as they can:

Yes, it seems like, these days, the photos are mostly flowers which, of course, is in keeping of these 'springing' days.  Flowers galore!

Oh, in early Feb I was able to get to Pearson's Falls, a family run waterfalls in the mountains where they have created boardwalks, rock steps and picnic tables at the bottom of the falls. Feb is a good time to go...not crowded, which it is in the summer, and plenty of water.

 

 I have been sitting on the back porch watching the sun rise, bundled up with the camera on a tripod and using a remote cable. Today I thought I'd try to get a series of photographs beginning with grey clouds over the distant mountains and then taking photographs as the clouds change colors and the sun makes it way above the mountains — below is the result:

THE NEW YEAR 2023
 

The last couple of days the early morning have been warmish creating thick fog. As it's a winter sun, the colors are very golden-yellow and I love what the color and fog does to the grounds, trees, fences, etc.

Japanese Chestnut

Fence on north side of tree

Dec 28, '22

One of the joys of cold weather is frozen water and taking photos and creating amazing photo just by getting close to the ice.

Most of the water was frozen with a leaf or two sticking out. Most of the color is from the water and dirt the water was frozen above.

I was mostly fascinated with the reflections of the dripping ice in the water as though something was growing up from the post in the water.

Lightwaves and frozen stems ... made me shiver.

Water and dirt.

 Slight different view of the Topsy Turvy,  a better photo of the base of the columns that support the whatever-it-is.

Teeny-tiny mushrooms along the road in the Bent Creek hiking area ... lotsa mushrooms and i'll post more later.

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

Also from the Bent Creek hike a couple weeks ago ... it was a huge butterfly and while the blooms it continued to land on looked mostly dead, i suppose they were lively enough to supply the butterfly with the energy it needed.

I continue being fascinated with the night moon.

 August full moon, peeking

Earlier in the summer there was both a full moon and full eclipse

just before the full eclipse

full eclipse

The moon images came out rather well and we were lucky that it was both a relatively clear sky (it clouded over 20 mins later) and in an area where city lights were not effecting the photograph.

Returning Fall 2022

 I have returned to photographing the Topsy Turvy bloom which blooms each year at this time. Looking at the post from last year I con't see that I improved the images very much but did end up with a final that I very much like.

Topsy Turvy

And at the end of last year I bought a Christmas cactus which is called that as it tends to bloom at Christmas time - the colors are wonderful.

Christmas Cactus

And then there is the Gladiola that I found along the road and  just love the pinks and gradations into the soft white

I know that giving feedback is not so easily done on this blog but give it a try, it'll help me-thanks.