Kilmaurs Club’s 2nd Open Competition was held last Monday night, and as usual the different sections, (Mono prints, Colour Prints and Projected images) were all strongly contested. This time, however, Jim Stevenson took top honours in all three sections. The competition judge, Boyd Meiklejohn from Ayr Camera Club, chose the above image entitled ‘Flora and Fauna’ for the award of the trophy– a beautifully lit image with a little surprise which had wandered into the frame.
Shining some light on his technique, Jim says, “Multiple focus-stacked images were shot on an Olympus EM1iii, which doesn’t usually require a tripod, but I needed a free hand to light the scene from above with a LED torch. After I began shooting the stack (where the point of focus moves through the scene front to back), a ladybird ambled into the shot. It didn’t appear on any of the frames until about shot 20, at which point it was recorded in focus. Completely accidental and couldn’t be repeated.”
Focus stacking is now a very popular technique for close-up photography, and this example is truly a worthy winner.