Bees on Milkweed

A black and yellow bee with clearly defined veined wings and fuzzy outlined leg parts is sitting on a bunch of pink and green milkweed flowers. His body is covered in orange fluff.The unopened ones are a lovely fuzzy pink with fuzzy green calyxes. The open ones are a smooth pale pink shaped like small cups around the centre. The background is mainly soft green with a soft blue centre. Another bee, not in focus, is behind the first one.
Bee on Milkweed

These cold and bleak fall days our wild and honey bees are nowhere to be seen, so it’s lovely to look back on the halcyon summer days when this scene was so common. Who would have thought milkweed flowers were so lovely? Have a lovely day, friends.
This was taken with my 180mm macro lens.

Myosotis – Forget Me Nots

Myosotis - Steven Kennard 2014
Myosotis – Steven Kennard 2014

The near perfect symmetry in this was what drew me to this grouping as well as the heart shape. It was photographed, handheld using my 180mm macro lens, at 1:1. It was as close as I could get without it being out of focus.

Karlsruhe Flower Market

In album Germany

Farmers in some parts of Germany grow fields of flowers and they bring them into the markets to sell. Not the usual Farm Friday posting, but certainly a kind of farm produce shared for one of my favourite themes,  #farmfriday   #farmingfriday +Farm Friday by the farm team +Sofie Løve Forsberg +Ellie Kennard and myself.
Also for:
#worldsmarketsfriday +At the World's Markets Friday by +Ken Ilio +Lauri Novak
#colorsonfriday +ColorsOnFriday by +Britta Rogge +Karsten Meyer
#floralfriday +FloralFriday by +Tamara Pruessner

Orchid Flower

Orchid - Macro Focus Stacked Image - Steven Kennard 2013
Orchid – Macro Focus Stacked Image – Steven Kennard 2013

This orchid was photographed using focus stacking technique – 40 macro shots stacked to create a depth of field that is impossible to achieve any other way.

For those interested in the technical information, I used the 180mm Canon macro lens with the camera attached to a Stack Shot focusing rail and using Zerene Stacker to combine all the file information into one finely detailed shot.

Original posting: April 25, 2013

I posted this photograph of an orchid flower the other day as a monochrome image (See below). It’s a shame not to also see it in full colour, so here it is. It was taken with a macro lens and the final photograph is composed of 41 different photographs blended to give the three dimensional appearance you see. the method is called Focus Stacking.

Orchid - macro focus stacked - Steven Kennard 2013
Orchid – macro focus stacked – Steven Kennard 2013