Mark Cassino Photography - Mark's Blog

Not sure what this flower is - or was. I found it in the barren February fields. Possibly an aster?

Shot at 1.5x lifesized. Pentax K-1 in pixel shift mode with DFA 50mm macro.

Maple seeds in still life.

These are my first experiment using pixel shift resolution with the Pentax K-1. It does seem to up the level of detail significantly.

Continuing to work on in-studio botanical studies. Here is a pair of photos of a dried rose leaf - top and bottom.

I'm considering displaying them as a diptych, maybe something like this:

On a technical note, both images were made using focus stacking with each being a composite of approximately 50 combined images.

I just delivered two pieces that were accepted into the 2017 West Michigan Area Show at the Kalamazoo Institute of Art. The opening reception is March 3, 2017 and the exhibit closes on May 28.

My two accepted entries for this year:

Continuing with botanical studies -a detailed photo of a grapevine tendril One hundred focus stacked images - 2 combined stacks.

The empty husk of a milkweed seed pod. Shot in the studio - 50 combined exposures in 2 stacks.

I do a lot of my outdoor photography in the Allegan State Game Area. This is a 50,000 acre (200 SQ. KM) area set aside for hunting, fishing, tapping, logging, horseback riding, camping and other purposes. It is not exactly a wild area since most areas are consistently visited by people (the designated wildlife refuges being the main exception to this) but given the large area of undeveloped land with minimal resident humans, it is more wild than not. So maybe it should described as a feral place that shows off the undomesticated side of both the resident wildlife and also the transient human visitors.

Whatever it is, the powers that be that attempt to manage the Allegan Forest try to set some boundaries and borders, mostly to keep motor vehicles out of the savannas, fields and woods. There are a lot of two tracks that pieces into the more wild areas of the forest and from time to time those who manage the forest put up gates or drop trees across the paths to keep people out. But gates, even those well anchored with concrete footings, can be pulled out of the sandy soil. And fallen trees can also be easily pulled aside. And so the ultimate barrier consists of multiple rows of large tree stumps, ripped out of the ground. And so - the subject of these photos.