Tom Oelschlaeger Photography

Tom Oelschlaeger Photography Capturing the light of interesting people, places and things.

Captured in the early evening. Canon R5; RF35 macro; 1/320; f2.8; iso500; 35 images in stack
09/03/2026

Captured in the early evening. Canon R5; RF35 macro; 1/320; f2.8; iso500; 35 images in stack

This is Muddy Creek Falls, an awesome loud cascade about 40 ft. high. Swallow Falls State Park has four waterfalls along...
08/30/2026

This is Muddy Creek Falls, an awesome loud cascade about 40 ft. high. Swallow Falls State Park has four waterfalls along a loop trail that is only about one mile long and not difficult.

For the photographers....This was a tough shot to edit. The shadows on the right and left of the white falls were really deep and I was unable to bring them up realistically with DPP (Canon) or Affinity Photo. Granted, my editing skills are barely average, so I may have been neglecting something. However, I uploaded a JPEG to Claude and instructed to bring up the shadows without over exposing the waterfall. The image here was the result. I included the image that I sent Claude which already had the shadows boosted as much as I dared without making the rocks and trees look unrealistic.

I am not in favor of using AI to generate images from scratch, but I am impressed with its application as a tool to salvage some otherwise unusable photos.

Flower power.
08/15/2026

Flower power.

Chasing butterflies again. The value of a photo rests in the freezing of the insect's constant seemingly erratic motion....
08/05/2026

Chasing butterflies again. The value of a photo rests in the freezing of the insect's constant seemingly erratic motion. The movement makes it difficult to perceive a meaningful level of detail with the naked eye. For example, looking at the wings with the naked eye during normal butterfly activity, we generally get the impression of a crisply bordered pattern. A close look (maybe zoomed) at a good photograph reveals that the "borders" are not crisp at all, but kind of fuzzy.

These guys are fun to chase around. This one doesn't seem to have any damage yet. Sometimes they have chunks missing fro...
08/03/2026

These guys are fun to chase around. This one doesn't seem to have any damage yet. Sometimes they have chunks missing from their wings, which I assume is the result of bumbled predation.

Some cropped in sections from my previously posted bug pics. I see all those little structures and shapes and wonder wha...
08/03/2026

Some cropped in sections from my previously posted bug pics. I see all those little structures and shapes and wonder what natural function each may provide for the insect. Insects are infinitely interesting.

I was hesitant to move the insect's legs around to their normal position because they might break off. These two images ...
08/02/2026

I was hesitant to move the insect's legs around to their normal position because they might break off. These two images are both stacks where I increased my interval to 2.4mm from a previous step of about 0.8mm. That resulted in a smaller number of images to combine and the software seemed to produce much better results.

I did the same thing with the hibiscus blooms....f11 aperture, larger focus step and smaller number of images.

Bugs are so cool. They have really intricate details and structures. Flowers, too!

Bug pics. I captured this fellow in my house. These are focus stacks of multiple individual shots.
08/01/2026

Bug pics. I captured this fellow in my house. These are focus stacks of multiple individual shots.

I found this cicada motionless on my driveway in the cool morning. T thought it was dead, so I carefully picked it up wi...
07/27/2026

I found this cicada motionless on my driveway in the cool morning. T thought it was dead, so I carefully picked it up with some paper napkins and set it on my desk for some photography later in the day.

It wasn't dead....The little bu**er somehow wiggled out of the napkin wrap and made its way into the kitchen to scare the serenity out of Helen while she was processing some of her garden bounty. I was able to rescue the cicada from a brutal smashing, but still sent her (I think it's a female) to a frozen demise in the freezer.

Insects of all types, when viewed still and really close up, reveal an impressive level of intricacy and detail that I always find fascinating.

Early morning, before the day's breeze comes along. Looking for interesting insects, but had to switch to flowers. Where...
07/26/2026

Early morning, before the day's breeze comes along. Looking for interesting insects, but had to switch to flowers. Where have all the bugs gone? There used to be armies of them. These are all depth composites, except for the Japanese beetle. I love their iridescent wing covers. You can see my reflection in it.

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