Busy weekend, the painting portion of the renovations in the studio, in between watching Wild Card football. One more coat to go on the new walls in preparation for the new floor arriving this week. Now off to Gillette to watch the game live – not on the sideline this time, in the stands, but in the good seats (thanks, Jeff). I am sure I will get some photos for tomorrow’s dailypic. Let’s go Pats.

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Back to the splash photos, not going to lie, these are never as good as I want them to be—this time, I did it with milk. I just about got it all right – these are the lining-up test shots – and then the trigger setup stops working. So I called it. There will be another round. I will get these the way I want them, and I have only been trying for 6 or so years. Baby steps.

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Town Hall got quieter today, it’s Queen Maryjane White retired. Town Clerk for the town of Medway for three decades. I was one of the few lucky ones at her small, covid style open house today. Though knowing her, I am sure she preferred the smaller version, with less attention, though she deserves so much more. Town Clerk for 30 years, also on the Town’s Selectboard, which she will continue to be, she has done more for this town than many might realize. Her passion, her dedication, and her sense of humor will all be missed.

She processed my marriage certificate, she handed me my first business permit for Tim Rice Photo, many dog license renewals, but more than that talked to my daughter about politics. Congratulated my son this past year as he handed in his first ballot, and was willing to answer any of my town questions I had. Multiply that by a whole town and she has touched the lives of everyone here in one way or another.

What I did not do much of was take her photo. We had an agreement. I would ask if I could take her photo every time I saw her, and she would say no. There was a one-sided benefit to the agreement, but I kept up my end as much as I could. I was “allowed” to take some today, and I am promised she will come to the studio to be in my We Are Medway Project, and I will hold her to that, the project would not be complete without her addition.

Congratulations on the well-deserved retirement MJ. Thank you for all you have done for this town.

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250 photos stacked over each other to create depth of field… or a piano.

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Focus stacking is taking multiple photos, at different focal points, of a subject and combining them to create a greater depth of field. The photo above is one of 250 photos taken for tonight’s photo. Though in this case it might had not be necessary for that many, I wanted to play with the process. So each shot was taken at f3.2, a very shallow depth of field starting with the first black key on the left in focus. Then with the camera on a tripod in a fixed spot, 249 more shots were taken moving the focus point slightly each time. Using a software called HeliconFocus I ‘stacked’ or merged them to one shot, shown below. Why below and not above? Well the plan was for the dailypic to be the 250 stacked shot. It took 7 minutes to take all the photos, another 20 to let them get processed, when it was done, I did not like the photo. To me it is boring, it does not tell me anything. But the one I chose above, number 202 in the series, seems more like me, i love how it leads you right to that key. Below are also a handful of single shots from the 250 to give you a sense of how tight each shot was that made the full image. It is a cool process, I tend to use it with macro toys shots (think the Hot Wheel cars from last week) more than anything, usually only 10-20 shots is all I need.

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