18 Mar 16. It was brought to my attention tonight at a camera club meeting that the tulips and daffodils are already blooming up north so I'm thinking it is time to make the annual pilgrimage to LaConner to capture some tulip images. Haven't gone yet obviously so what I'm sharing today is a shot from a earlier trip. For me the biggest challenge, after dealing with the weather, is getting everything sharp from front to back. Yes I know, the solution to doing such is to use a small aperture such as f / 22, but that has its own problems in addition to the one of it not working when you are really close to something and your shot includes the close and the way far away. There is a solution however and that is to select your best working aperture, generally in the middle of the range, such as f / 8 or 11, then shoot a series of sharply focused shots changing only the focal point and then combining them in a piece of software that selects only the sharpest section of each shot creating a single image tack sharp from front to back. The image for today was created in just that manner. Obviously you need to work using a tripod or some other device that keeps the camera from moving even the slightest. This is a really nice way of creating very sharp macro shots especially when working with flowers very close up. There are manual ways of doing this without special software but it does require a lot of work and time to do what the software can accomplish quite quickly. The software programs that can do this range from the free to quite expensive and each has it advantages, but most of the programs come with a price tag. This is a 7 shot sequence of the fields combined into one. The 7 frames were combined into a single file, then given a small amount of micro contrast adjustment. All frames Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 100; 1/640 sec @ f / 8 on a tripod and using a cable release.