Tiny Life on a Large Decaying Log

I went out for a walk in the woods today with my tripod, iPhone XR, and Moment lenses. I had gone only a short distance when I came upon a very large black oak tree that had died maybe 20 years ago and fallen to the ground a few years ago. Much of the trunk was covered with many types and colors of very much alive lichens. I took a half dozen closeup photos, mostly using the macro lens.

It usually takes several minutes to get everything set up for each shot because even a single millimeter off could be the difference between a just OK image or a great one. I thought this image was the best of the focus bracketed shots I took. I'm still figuring out what accessories I need to take along to make things easier to set up, especially when the wind is blowing things around.


For reference, the image is about 3 cm high and 2 cm wide, which is roughly what will fit into the Moment macro lens view when its frame face is about one cm from the lichen, about the closest it can be and still focus all of the nearest part. The sun was shining brightly so I used my shadow to block the harsh light from the lichen.

CameraPixels was used to focus bracket 50 images, and Affinity Photo was used to focus align and merge the images. Photos was used to slightly brighten the image, slightly increase the saturation, slightly reduce luminance, and slightly increase sharpness.