The Healing Power of Focus Stacking

“In 2024, a few weeks before my seventy-fifth birthday, two large changes collided in my life: being gifted a fabulous new camera system that would allow me to focus-stack the flower images I’d been drawn to shoot for twenty-five years; and the shock of learning that I had stage 3 ovarian cancer and that, three days after my birthday I would undergo major surgery,  followed by six rounds of chemotherapy. I could have been consumed with fear and anxiety about my health; instead, I put as much energy as I could into learning my new camera system and engaging with the beautiful flowers I brought home to my small studio. A web-developer friend collaborated with me to create a beautiful website, jeanneschlesinger.com, where I could share the close-up flower pictures that were providing so much healing for me. Chemotherapy wasn’t easy, but putting my energy into this project kept anxiety and pain at bay and kept me focusing on the joy of making art, resting when I needed to and creating when I had the energy.”