First, I have moved the two "Death of a Sempervivum" posts from the chronological blog to the static pages, which appear on the right-hand menu. They are:
- Death of a Sempervivum, part I, Sempervivum heuffelii Unknown #5.
- Death of a Sempervivum, part II, Chick Charms 'Powdered Pastry.'
Second, I'll carry the Sempervivum theme for at least one more day. Even with a camera aperture of f/11, only a portion of the image is in focus with a single macro image, so I use focus bracketing and stacking when I have time. With a tripod and the focus bracketing capability built into the World's Most Powerful Mirrorless Camera (Canon R5 Mark II) and 100mm macro lens, I take up to 36 images at different focus points, front to back. The camera will do the stacking if you want, but it uses all of the images. Since I try to leave a cushion at the back end, I would rather select which images I want included, which I do in a program called Zerene Stacker.1 My photography origins were in journalism, so I'm always trying to get realistic-looking photographs. The thing about Sempervivums and other succulents is they sometimes don't look real. Here is an unreal Semp, one of my favorites now, Chick Charms 'Lotus Blossom.' It is cold and windy here today, so I did the photography inside in my studio, aka the kitchen.
As I posted a few days ago, this is what it looked like four months ago when I received it from Mountain Crest Gardens. It has changed so much so that I questioned whether I got it mixed up with something else. Upon further review, no, I didn't, both of these images are the same 'Lotus Blossom.'
Calcareum (no variety name) also has an abudance of offsets.
I didn't think this one had changed much since I brought it home from Home Depot April 8. But my memory is far from perfect, so the reason I take pictures of the plants is to make sure they are growing. This one and its offsets have gotten a lot plumper. The purple tips are the same, but the green has become more muted.
The first Chick Charms 'Gold Nugget' I got was in one pot with larger 'Appletini' and 'Cosmic Candy' plants. It came from Mountain Crest March 31. Why Chick Charms jams these trios into a small pot, I don't understand, but it was the cheapest way to get three plants. That 'Gold Nugget' was the runt of the litter, so I got a bigger one from Mountain Crest May 16. That is what you see here. Barely visible are two of the three offsets. I bought this 6-inch ribbed terra cotta pot for the original 'Gold Nugget,' which was way too small for it. I won't bother getting any more of these pots. I'm now a believer in ordinary, short terra cotta pots for succulents.
I also added two focus-stacked images to the 'Powdered Pastry' page.
1 For the 'Lotus Blossom' image from a relatively flat angle, I used all 30 images that I took, and still the back of the pot is not in focus. For Calcareum, it was an overhead shot and I used the only the first seven out of 18. The 'Gold Nugget' image also is from a higher angle and I used 10 of 18.