While out making photographs in the back country last weekend, I ran into a situ ation that caused me a considerable amount of frustration. I was shooting at the top of a cliff above a mountain lake with an interesting rock in front of me ab out five feet away and at the bottom of the 75-100 ft cliff I could see some fal len dead trees near the lake and in the distance a mountain range. I could get t he rock and the distance to focus on the ground glass but had one HELL of a time to get the fallen trees at the bottom of the cliff into clarity. After about 10 minutes of failed attempts I realized that I had two planes to focus and the sh ot was probably doomed from the start. I would appreciate any similar experience s and ways that you accomplished sharpness in the final results. I was shooting with a 180 mm lens on a 5x7 camera.

Many thanks in advance.