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| Moth at Toadstool Geologic Park, September 2018. (Photo by Daniel Binkard) |
“I have to turn my lens like a caveman to focus. This work is brutal.”
Along the recently opened Great Plains Trail in Toadstool Geologic Park, there are occasional bursts of flowers and pollinators. I find the movements of the butterflies, moths, and bees around flowers fascinating. These little critters can be relaxing to watch, assuming there are no mosquitoes bugging you at the time.
On this hot September day, I had my 105mm close up lens from the 1970s, a lens whose look I quite enjoy. The usual photos of a moth more or less in focus were fine, but while leaning in to line up the plane of focus with the critter, I noticed the arrangement of out-of-focus elements in the composition, and took a shot of nothing but bokeh.
While some who have seen this photo seem turned off by its soft nature, I like it. I like the warm range of colors, and the subtle arrangement of angles formed by the soft spheres. I like the hint of pattern implied in the wings.
