Not what I meant to shoot

Been sitting on this post for a while as so many other things seemed to get in the way (that baby girl just keeps growing, and I need to take more pictures of her!).

Last fall, the men of Apostles Church took a retreat to the Streamside Camp and Conference Center in the Poconos. We'd been there the year before, and I had discovered a pond with a little shed surrounded by woods that had a lot of potential. This year, we hit just before peak fall colors, but with plenty of leaves having turned, there was a lot to work with in the morning light.





I figured a few wide angle shots, maybe throw in some tighter ones, and really work with the reflection of that shed in the water surrounded by the foliage.

But looking closer revealed that the real action wasn't the overall scene, but rather the individual leaves floating idly in the water. Very tranquil and rather artistic. I swapped out the 18-55 kit lens for my trusty Tamron 75-300 telephoto to be able to isolate the leaves, and worked that angle.





In addition to the reach, the telephoto gave the added benefit of dropping the reflected foliage nicely out of focus behind the floating leaves. I wound up ignoring the shed and focusing solely on the leaves.











Sometimes you just have to go with what you find, and not be locked into a preconceived shot. Certainly worked out in this case.