Macro, Yucca, and Thread

I need fancy threads and I need fancy stitches. I use most of the 300 different stitches my sewing machine will make. My thread collection has at least 200 different threads. Variegated. Single color. Shiny. Matte. Metallic. Thick. Thin. Silk. Cotton. Polyester. Skinny spools. Fat spools. Small cones. Large cones. Really, really, really large cones. Very old thread wound onto wood spools. 

I had a coupon for 25% off from Superior Threads. Superior makes King Tut threads, and those are my favorite. Today, my thread arrived in my post office box. 

I’ve been battling chronic insomnia, and read that going out into the sunshine in the morning can help reset my circadian rhythms. If I’m going to go outside, I might as well be doing something so I take my camera with me. Yesterday, I worked on macro photography. I am getting better with this lens. It’s a prime lens and the last “prime lens” I had was a Kodak Instamatic when I was in high school. All my other lenses are zoom telephoto lenses. With a prime lens, I can’t adjust the lens to accommodate the subject. I have to move the camera farther from the subject. 

My first macro lens was attached to a Minolta SLR which I bought used. I got a decent SLR and the lens I wanted for less than the cost of a new macro lens. I used that lens to photograph antiques when I wrote for Antique Week 25 years ago. I learned to use my lens by photographing marks on the back of china pieces. The mark gives both the manufacturer and the approximate age of the piece of china. I was happily photographing a flat mark on a flat piece of china. That didn’t require a whole lot of thought. 

Now, I’m using my macro lens to photograph flowers and that requires a whole lot of thought. I’m photographing round objects, and a macro lens has a shallow depth of field. Even at f/14 I can’t get the entire flower in sharp focus. It was suggested I use focus stacking to solve that problem. Focus stacking requires a tripod and involves taking several shots of a subject and focusing on a slightly different part of the subject with each shot. My editing program then blends the shots into one sharp photo. I’m not about to take the tripod into the yard, find a relatively cactus free space, and fight with adjacent bushes for space to put the tripod legs while being careful not to step on a rattlesnake and hoping the wind wouldn’t move the subject flower around. 

Instead, I set up the tripod on the patio, put up a neutral background on the table, set out the spools of thread, and started shooting. Because these were just practice shots, I didn’t bother to remove the labels on the spools. When I was editing the photos, I started playing around with the photos. Swirls. Kaleidoscopes. Waves.

I liked what happened. I can’t sell fabric designs if I’ve got a label showing unless I have permission from the thread manufacturer. Tomorrow, I’ll work on focus stacking thread shots after I removed the labels from the spools. 

I’m linking with Nina Marie http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com

My store, Deb Thuman Art is here: http://www.DebThumanArt.com

My Spoonflower shop is here: https://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/deb_thuman