A month ago, I purchased off Amazon a package of small gears used for jewelry. I piled the gears on a black table during the last couple of weeks and started shooting using a manual focus stack technique.

First, using a 50mm lens and an extension tube, I focused on the closest spot. Then moving the camera slowly forward, I would shoot about ten frames. Next, in Photoshop, I used the auto-align layers and auto blend layers features. The manual - no tripod - manual focus stacked created blank white edges that I filled with Photoshop's content-aware feature. Between the uneven focus stack and content-aware areas, these images ended up with interesting blurred regions.

August 2, 2009: Los Angeles Times building in downtown Los Angeles. On October 1, 1910, a bomb went off in a previous Los Angeles Times building, killing 20 employees. I am spending time today remembering. https://www.latimes.com/visuals/photography/la-me-fw-archives-the-1910-bombing-of-the-los-angeles-times-20180612-htmlstory.html

Sep. 11, 2021: Infrared image of the Santa Barbara Harbor in Santa Barbara, California. 720nm filter at 1/60 sec at f/7.1, ISO 100.

Sep. 22, 2021: Mast rises above the water on a foggy morning in Morro Bay, marking Lady Maxine's location that sank on July 28, 2021. The 1970s era fishing boat reportedly was in derelict condition and moored for decades in Morro Bay. 

Sep. 8, 2021: About 150 volunteers installed The Waves of Flags 9/11 Memorial at Pepperdine University Thursday afternoon in Malibu, California. The placement of almost 3,000 flags began about 4:30 in the afternoon and took about 90 minutes. Each American or foreign flag represents the life of one of the 2,977 people killed during the Sep. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York, Washington D.C., and Pennsylvania. Pepperdine University students began this memorial in 2008.

Sep. 4, 2021: A visitor to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library takes a photo of Air Force One. The modified Boeing 707 entered service in 1972 and served presidents until being retired in 2001. The pavilion displaying the aircraft opened in 2005.

Aug. 16, 2021: Infrared image taken at the Gardens of the World in Thousand Oaks, California. The Gardens of the World park was given to the City of Thousand Oaks in 2001 by Ed and Lynn Hogan, owners of Pleasant Holidays.

Aug. 15, 2021: Canadian Geese flying into Rancho Simi Community Park Duck Pond this morning in Simi Valley, California.

Aug. 8, 2021: Image of pigeons at the Rancho Simi Community Park, aka "Duck Pond," in Simi Valley, California, taken with a slow shutter speed of one-fifth a second.