Astrophytum myriostigma -- bishops cap

[Cactuspic]

Usually five sided, Astrophytum myriostigma is valued for its sculptural shapes and interestings. the white flocking is composed of trichomes, which are small hairy structures that often produce chemicals to deter insects.

This particular plant was bred for its heavy flocking pattern. It is about 1 1/2 inches tall. The focus stacked image was composited from 84 slices. Hope you enjoy

Irwin

[Matatazela]

Beautifully done. 84 is lot of slices!!!

[Photogirl2007]

Excellent Irwin. Come winter, I am going to try stacking too, it makes such a good picture.

[LordV]

Amazing pattern on this Irwin :)
Brian V.

[Greg_C]

Wow, nice work Irwin, plenty of patience to do that. Well done.

[bandit 1]

Hiya Irwin,

Excellent shot/stack as Brian says "an amazing pattern" almost looks as though it's covered in Mealy Bugs, well sorta ;):lol:

I read somewhere this is held sacred by the The Tarahumara Indians of northern Mexico?

Has this one flowered yet or do we have this beauty to come in a few years ??:lol:

Cheers for now
Mark

[Cactuspic]

Thank you Matatazela, Brian, Joan, Greg and Mark for taking the time to look and comment.

Stacking has proven to a godsend to me. My subject was about 1 inch deep. At close to 1:1 that is too deep to hold focus by traditional photography. Even if I had stopped down to f32 I would not have been able to keep the focus sharp throughout. That does not even consider the softening caused by diffraction

Joan, you will love stacking. Most of the shooters here use the Combine software. I have not used it yet. I have grown comfortable using Helicon. It processes my large raw images in 16 bit mode. I then pull the composite into PS and adjust it as a raw file. They will blowup to wall size. The only drawback is time. Complex images can take a minor forever, particularly if you have to transfer information from each of the constituate slices. O well...some people were meant to turtle through life. I was amazed, however, on my recent vacation. I forgot how inviting it is to take hand held single images. I took more images ina single morning than I typically do in a week.

Mark, your reference to mealy bugs hit the mother lode. I learned much about lighting by holding my white furry mammillarias to the light to determine the best angle for distinguishing the cottony white egg sacks of the mealy bug from the white hairs of my plants. I also leaned to appreciate life as seen in 1/8 inch increments.

The plant is still too small for flowering. I suspect a bloom is still several years away. I Think the soul of a grower is grounded in patience.

Irwin

[Photogirl2007]

I forgot how inviting it is to take hand held single images. I took more images ina single morning than I typically do in a week.

Before stacking, this was all there was, but I have been inspired by some of Charlies images. He is a real master at this but then again, he has the equipment. There are a lot of people on this forum who are doing wonderful work too.:)

The only drawback is time.
There is my problem in a nutshell!!:) I hardly have enough time for anything else as it is.:lol:

[johnkermit1]

The only drawback is time.
Irwin

to me....(just read my signature.....i agree)