Slices of sublime beauty wait in the wetlands of Sedona. The more time I spend in nature the more gifts seem to come my way. I have found however, that I have to be open to the experience.
Open to the experience
Pursuing dragonfly images in the wetlands is joy to me. Having to slow down and observe moments and behavior allow my brain to take a break. Sometimes I have the end in mind to such an extent that I forget to leave room for happy accidents.
This day was not one of those.
Reeds from the wetlands in Sedona, AZ form beautiful shapes curves and lines
Gear
An Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark III was fitted out with the new ** M Zukio 100-400mm f/5.0-6.3 lens with an MC 20 2x extender. The long lens compresses the scene and helps create a shallow depth-of-field. The camera rested on a FotoPro Eagle E6L tripod. The built in gimbal head makes it easy to maneuver the camera lens combo.
Back button focus
Because I use back button focus when photographing wildlife the camera only changes focus when it is engaged. Because I have to search for the wildlife through a long lens the focus was slightly off as a scanned the reeds. What I saw was a little slice of magic. That serendipitous moment led me to try this as a technique. Light and shadow in yellows and greens played soft silhouettes in my viewfinder.
I worked the scene and share a couple of the resulting images here.
Post processing
Very little post-production was done on these photos. A little spot cleanup here, a tiny dodge and burn there were all that was needed. I hope you enjoy these as much as I do.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
PS – if you have any questions let me know
** I am testing the 100-400mm lens. Release date is September 15th, 2020
