One of my favourite techniques is handheld focus stacking. Why? Because of the pure versatility. Setting up a tripod for the angles I like can be slow, especially if it needs to be inverted, and sometimes not even possible due to the surrounding environment. Plus with the angles I want, a tripod leg or two might end up in the shot. Some of my favourite images were made with this technique, this being one of them.
This particular image is compromised of 15 frames, both a focus stack and pano, handheld. I don't really think about how many frames a focus stack will have... Once I have my composition, I rapidly burst all the frames, rotating the focus ring between each exposure until I hit infinity. I recommend giving it a try.
Full disclosure, I added the rays in this one. I wanted to add a bit more background interest to balance out the foreground.
