Play Circles in Rainy Days

Wanting to shoot something with representation of Circles, I could barely find any circular subjects at my house except the glasses, cups and mugs.  Wine and beer bottles can be interesting with all that cool graphics on the bottle, but the round top and bottom look empty. So, I thought about my teacups which are hand-made and have some colors.

I wish sun would shine through at some point so that I can use filtered light to generate some depth, but sunlight did not stay long these days, I could not even fetch a little. And misty rain came down again, sparsely but steadily. Where are my circles? Nothing, only rain drops.

Fellow photographers are taking 25-50 shots for a focused stacking close-up shots. It seems to be quite an endeavor, so I decided to trim it down, I took 8-10 shots.  It is definitely better than a single shot with smaller depth of field, but far from the tack-sharp image that I was aiming for. I wish I had downloaded this image earlier... By the time when I wanted to take the 25 shots, the plant had long finished its life cycle for this year. Through photography, my patience is in training and yet, I failed over and over.

Spring will bring me new hope and I am determined to make it happen this time around. For preparation, I did my experiment on cut tulips. This image was stacked with 26 shots.  I got some perfect circles, but they are not as sharp as what I had in mind. I will try 30, 40 or 50 next timer. The more I shoot, the higher my bar has raised and I seem to always falling short.

I thought I could at least find something circular at 5th Street market in town, but not much luck. However, there was a small music band performing in the courtyard. The singer and guitarist are young, but their vocal quality and stage persona are up to the standard. A small crowd was there, but nobody seemed to be willing to make any move. I could not take any pictures without involving many heads and shoulders. So I shoot upwards and these few circles come to my sight. Somehow I found them enchanting. I guess it is the retro ambiance created by the aged wood ceiling, posts and cast irons.

Ordinary days. Circles, the ordinary subjects. But I learned something from doing.