A Local Swamp

I know the Pacific Northwest gets a lot of rain, but I didn't realize we have quite a few swamps and marshes around here.

Swamp just outside Wilkeson, WA

I like to follow back roads to see what kind of photo opportunities I’ll find; this one was between Sunset Quarry and Sunset Lake. (No clue where the sunset in the names comes from…)

I pulled over, so to speak—the water came right up to the road, and the other side of the road was also a drop-off. Not much traffic, though; I guess neither Sunset Quarry nor Sunset Lake are big draws this time of year.

There were ducks, but they were too far away for the lens I had on the camera, the Sigma 105mm. So I tried to get some shots of various features. This image is a focus stack: two images with different focus positions. One image focuses on the plants; the other focused on the vertical stump. I merged them in Affinity Photo, which does a good job with focus stacks.

I had some trouble getting good focus on many of the images; I think it has to do with my built-in wobble (bad ankles). Between the time the camera focused and I took the shot, I had moved—and with an f/1.4 lens, the zone of focus is very narrow. If I want to take pictures wide open to limit the depth of focus, then I need to lug a tripod with me next time.

Here’s another photo isolating a ‘swamp feature’ with a narrow depth of focus: