Precipice

Every year since 2012 my family has spent a few days each summer in cabins at the shore of Milford Lake, Kansas, just enjoying each other’s company. We talk, play games, go swimming, ride the pontoon, sit by the campfire, and stay up way, way too late knowing full well we really should be getting to bed. But we don’t, and it’s great :) And every year I bring my full suite of cameras to take some photos that I can’t get any other time–nothing groundbreaking, mind you, but pictures that exist just outside the boundaries of my normal daily life. This bug (beetle?) you see here is one such image, and even though nothing about it screams lake vacation it’s a shot that I don’t really have the opportunity to take at home or walking around the Oklahoma State University campus. Not that there aren’t plenty of bugs and insects around, but at the lake everything just seems so much more vibrant and alive! Or, perhaps, maybe I am just a bit more attuned to things like this when there’s wind in the trees, the smell of lake water in the air, and the sound of my kids playing with their cousins down on the shore.

My brother Phil had his Tokina 100mm f/2.8 macro lens firmly attached to his Nikon D7200 for most of our time at the lake this year, and the two of us had a great time talking about, and taking, shots of the small world around us. There was a patch of greenery between our cabin and the beach, and one afternoon I just kind of stood there poking around with my D750 and 105mm f/2.8 macro lens, marveling at the sheer quantity of life right in front of me and getting a few pictures along the way.

It wasn’t long until I saw this tiny creature crawling along a leaf, and even though I wasn’t sure exactly what kind of picture I would be able to take I figured I would at least give it a shot. It wasn’t exactly running but when working at such close distances even the smallest movement can mean big changes. I set my aperture to f/16, Auto-ISO to a minimum shutter speed of 1/500, and followed the bug as it made its way across the greenery. Soon it paused and peered over the edge, possibly contemplating the relative height from which it was now gazing, and it was at that instant that I snagged the shot you see here. I had my camera set to high-speed continuous shooting so this was just one out of a short series of shots but even so, it was the only one that just worked. The only things in focus are exactly what should be in focus, and the rest of the picture provides much-needed context to understand what is going on. I also like the backlighting on the creature, particularly its antennae, which was a direct result of the time of day: you are more likely to get photos like this in the morning or, in my case, evening.

While this wasn’t the first macro picture I took on our trip it was one of my early favorites, and I’m excited to share more in the coming weeks.