Whatizit?

Periodically I will change the featured photograph of this post and ask viewers to guess what it is – please use the Comment form below or the Contact Us form to submit your guess. Later the image and the answer will be added to the post and the photo gallery.

Prior Whatizit? Photographs

3/7/24 – Red Wine Bubbles
2/6/24 – Tangerine Skin
1/7/24 – Sawtooth Oak Acorn Cap
12/10/23 – Mold on the inside of a peanut butter jar lid
11/11/23 – Ice Cube
10/18/23 – Orange Slice
9/9/23 – Candy Box Tray
8/3/23 – Cutco Serrated Knife Blade
7/3/23 – Osage Orange

Please click the gallery below to view the prior Whatizit? photographs and details about the images.

Technical Information

In addition to the camera, lens, and exposure information, I have included a brief description of each subject and how each photograph was taken.

Red Wine Bubbles

This image is of bubbles formed by pouring red wine into a wine glass. I had to set-up the camera on a tripod positioned to allow the wine to be poured directly in front of the lens. It was difficult to capture the area where the bubbles formed and get the focus correct since the bubbles dissipated rapidly after the wine was poured. The final cropped image was edited to remove noise and to sharpen it.

• Date: 12/22/2023
• Camera: Canon EOS 77D
• Lens: Sigma 105 mm f/2.8 EX DG OS HSM Macro
• Settings:
  • Lens: 105mm, f/16
  • ISO: 3200
  • Shutter: 1/30 sec
• Cropped image is 4302 x 2868 px

Tangerine

This image is a closeup of the skin of a tangerine. This image was made from four separate images focused at different points and focus stacked with Helicon Focus. Please see the Definitions, Software, & Apps page for additional information about this technique.

The gallery above also shows a photograph of the setup I used to take the photograph. I used two LED light panels with a piece of white foam board over the LED light panels to reflect the LED light panels onto the tangerine. The image was cropped to eliminate the reflections of the LED light panels on the tangerine skin.

• Date: 9/12/2023
• Camera: Canon EOS 77D
• Lens: Sigma 105 mm f/2.8 EX DG OS HSM Macro with 68mm extension tubes
• Settings:
  • Lens: 173mm, f/11
  • ISO: 800
  • Shutter: 0.5 sec
• Cropped image is 3910 x 2610 px

Acorn Cap

This image is the cap of an acorn from a Sawtooth Oak that Beverly found on JMU’s campus; it was made from 12 separate photographs: there were three photos taken at different exposures to create HDR images for each of four focus locations using Aurora HDR. The HDR images were then focus stacked with Helicon Focus. (Please see the Definitions, Software, & Apps page for additional information about these techniques.) The merged image was then edited in Photoshop to remove the background. The gallery above also shows an acorn with its cap taken from a tree.

• Date: 10/17/2023
• Camera: Canon EOS 77D
• Lens: Sigma 105 mm f/2.8 EX DG OS HSM Macro
• Settings:
  • Lens: 105mm, f/8
  • ISO: 1600
  • Shutter: 1/60 sec
• Image is 5986 x 3988 px

Mold

This image is mold on the inside of a peanut butter jar lid that Beverly was using to store fat from cooking prior to disposal. This image was made from 10 separate images focused at different points and focus stacked with Helicon Focus. Please see the Definitions, Software, & Apps page for additional information about this technique.

The gallery above also shows a photograph of the setup I used to take the photograph. I used two LED light panels with orange filters; the white panel over the LED light panels was used to minimize and diffuse the overhead while light.

• Date: 3/25/2023
• Camera: Canon EOS 77D
• Lens: Sigma 105 mm f/2.8 EX DG OS HSM Macro
• Settings:
  • Lens: 105mm, f/8
  • ISO: 400
  • Shutter: 1/100 sec
• Cropped image is 4876 x 3251 px

Ice Cube

Orange Slice

Candy Box Tray

Cutco Serrated Knife Blade