fighting the fatigue

Multiple myeloma brings many problems.  Bone pain and nausea to name but two, but the one that has always affected me the most, and is particularly bad right now, is sheer fatigue.  I am constantly tired and want to sleep all the time.  But then the other issues (the pain and almost constant nausea) stop me from getting the rest I really need, so it all descends into a pit of despair!

A little dramatic maybe but you get my drift.

Anyway, just last Thursday I decided to ignore the craving to just get into bed and ventured down the woods with a project in mind: to find, shoot and process an image on location.  Now, while the first two elements fell nicely in to place, the same can't be said for the last ingredient!

I wanted to take my laptop with me, but no-one else wanted to come so I ended up just taking my iPad as that was all I could fit in my bag along with all the bird food I took with me.  No matter I thought, as I have Adobe Lightroom on it so I can use that.

But after getting there I realised I didn't have any focus stacking software, so needed to shoot my image at the tiniest of apertures to get as much in focus as possible.  And then, after working out how to do a screen recording on my iPad so I could share the processing part, I found a severely depleted battery that just about lasted the rushed five minutes it took to process my image.

And here is the final result:

Fujifilm X-H2, Laowa 65mm f2.8 Ultra-Macro
1/4 of a second at f22, ISO 125
tripod, self-timer release

On my way out of the woods I decided to photograph some dead ferns I'd spotted on the way in. After searching for a composition amongst the frankly overwhelming mass of ferns, I settled on a leaf (of course!) stuck among some fronds.  

This time I shot a proper focus bracket and stacked and processed it much more carefully at home!

Fujifilm X-H2, Laowa 65mm f2.8 Ultra-Macro
1/60th of a second at f5.6, ISO 125
tripod, self-timer release
10 image focus bracket stacked with Helicon Focus

Of course, there is a video to accompany this whole farcical disaster, and you can watch it just by clicking below as usual: