Silvery Thread Moss (dry specimen)

Description:

Bryum argenteum growing on retaining wall built of concrete blocks. As you can see, this nice silver-green moss turns completely white when dry (wall looks West and receives enough sun to be completely dry). This photo was taken as stack of 11 frames using tripod and my DIY translation stage. Lens - 20mm Panasonic prime, attached to camera via Kenko extension ring.I'm pretty happy with result - it's my first stack taken outdoors with this setup, and I'm still concerned about lousy cheap Vanguard ballhead (which is as part of kit with my carbon fiber tripod). But tightening the locking knob with pliers helps to get enough friction.All the processing performed in ImageJ 2, using Linear SIFT-based registration and Extended Depth of Field plugin. Some ripple, visible around brightest points, is pretty subtle, so I'm happy with choice of settings (exposure time, mainly). It's easy to avoid situations like that using diffuser to remove direct light and lower the contrast, fitting it into dynamic range of camera.