Following up on yesterday’s image with a half moon, I decided to share this one of my favorite tree in town starting to bloom. If you can believe it, this photo was taken on March 31, 2012. Last I checked this tree, it was still far from blooming.
I had wanted to capture the details in the branch and the blossoms in their varied stages of blossoming. Again, as yesterday, the issue was the negative space that surrounded the branch. Fortunately, I found a great element to break up the space. The issue next was a technical one – how to maintain focus on both subjects.
Even with the aperture at f/22 (to try to maximize focus on near and far), when I focused on the blossoms, the moon turned to a blur and when I focused on the moon, the blossoms lost all detail. In the end, the answer lay in focus stacking. I took both images in nearly the same position (this was hand-held so I moved a small amount between shots) and I alternated focus on the blossoms and the moon. At home, I combined the two images and this otherwise impossible image was the result.
On a similar note, if you have any great blossoming trees in your neighborhood, please let me know with a comment below or messaging/emailing me. Thanks!