Sunrise over Teethnotch Mountains - a photo on Flickriver

             
 #MacroMondays
 #Key

Teethnotch Mountains in Anozira distinguish themselves from other mountain chains by a combination of pyramidal and mesa peaks. The ascent to their highest summits happens over several levels of lower mesas, followed by categories of the highest difficulty. But once the top has been reached, there is a fantastic view to be enjoyed, especially at sunrise. Due to its unique geological characteristics and a special "sun illusion", the sun appears several times bigger at sunrise or sunset. 

My first thought about "Key" was to get as close to the key, its ridges/teeth and notches (which in German is called "Schlüsselbart" – key beard or just beard) as possible, and maybe try an abstract approach aided by backlight. Another idea formed when I thought about the typical shape of the "beard" part. It reminded me of hills or mountains. I still gave my first idea a few shots, and it's something to keep in mind for a future "Key" theme, but in the end, I decided to stick to the mountain chain idea.

I picked a regular metal/apartment key first, but the key itself was a "problem". It was shiny, scratched, and there was lint (even after carefully washing it several times ̵– maybe each time the fibre cloth re-added new lint after drying it, who knows), and it showed in each photo as unpleasant dots. Stacking even made it worse, but it was necessary because there's no blur in a mountain chain when you look at it from the ground, right? So I looked for another key and found this nice brass key with a matte surface and an interesting "beard" shape.

To create the sunrise, I used the yellow, semi-transparent washing liquid bottle cap as the sun (it normally serves as the yellow colour filter). To achieve the right height, I glued it to a small Christmas-themed snow globe with a large piece of modeling clay to make it stay put. Why a snow globe of all things? It provided the right height for the sun, and it happened to be on the table. For the sunrise colours, and also to add a little "Alpenglow", I held the transparent red chocolate box lid against the daylight lamp (light from above), and I also illuminated the scene from the left and right to highlight the key's layers and the brass texture.

I did in-camera focus stacking (15 photos; focus differential set to 5), but recombined the images in Helicon Focus (method A, R8, S4), because the results were even better.

Happy Macro Mondays, Everyone!

Taken on: May 18, 2025

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Macro Mondays

Key

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toothed

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mountains

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mesa

pyramidal peak

sunrise

Alpenglow

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diorama

miniature scenery

tabletop

Schlüssel

Messing

Bart

Schlüsselbart

gezackt

Bergkette

Berggipfel

Tafelberg

Alpenglühen

Sonnenaufgang

Miniaturszene

sleutel

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llave

klucz

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Ключ

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Olympus

OM-D E-M1 Mark III

M.Zuiko Digital ED 60mm 1:2.8 Macro

focus stacking

Helicon Focus

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Sets appears in: • Macro Mondays

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Camera: Olympus E-M1MarkIII, f/5.0, 1/80 sec, 60mm, ISO 200 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Olympus E-M1MarkIII
Lens:	OLYMPUS M.60mm F2.8 Macro
Aperture:	f/5.0
Exposure Time:	0.013 sec (1/80)
Focal Length:	60mm
ISO:	200
Exposure Bias:	-0.3 EV
Flash:	On, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Aperture-priority AE
Exposure Mode:	Manual
Metering Mode:	Spot
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	Uncalibrated
Software:	Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic 14.3.1 (Windows)
Show full info

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