Quasi-Macro 70-200 Backlit Dewdrops. On Happiness

On Choosing Happiness

In the What’s Up section that leads many blog posts, I often include something like this:

I hope that you too choose to have a wonderful and productive day and that you have fun too. Do remember that happiness is a choice — Byron Katie, The Work.Com.

It usually goes unnoticed. In a recent blog post, IPT veteran David Policansky left this comment:

Happy new year, Artie. I slightly prefer image #1 mainly because I enjoy rough seas and photos of rough seas. What made the green color? As for happiness being a choice, I understand the point, but there are situations in which happiness is very difficult, if not impossible, to achieve. I know you have experienced situations where, at least for me, it would be very difficult to be happy. With love, Dr Fish

(Note: blog regular Maggi Fuller commented that she totally (and unfortunately) agrees with David.)

First off, thanks David for your comment and the new year’s wishes. The color of the ocean varies a lot depending on light angle, depth of the water (as noted by To Redd), and lots more. There was no sun at all that day.

As for choosing happiness, that is what The Work is all about. And they do not call it Work for nothing 🙂 Like happiness, choosing whether or not to do The Work is a choice. After my beloved wife and best friend Elaine Belsky Morris’ death from breast cancer in 1994, I was doing my best. That said, for seven years I chose to play the role of martyr. Yes, seven years. I would meet somebody on the beach and they would say, “Arthur Morris, BIRDS AS ART! How great!” Most to the time I would begin to sob, thinking, “The person who loved me the most is gone. How great is that?” Some time in 200 or 2001, Dr. Cliff Oliver, probably tired of hearing me cry on the phone, suggested that I go to The Work.Com website, print a worksheet –it’s free, and learn to do the work. I did, and it was not long after that that I quit sobbing and came to peace over losing Elaine.

Byron Katie Says

I discovered that when I believed my thoughts I suffered, but when I didn’t believe them I didn’t suffer, and that this is true for every human being. Freedom is as simple as that. I found that suffering is optional. I found a joy within me that has never disappeared, not for a single moment. That joy is in everyone, always. And I invite you not to believe me. I invite you to test it for yourself by clicking here.

In 2003, Katie wrote Loving What Is, introducing the world to The Work with the publication of Loving What Is. Nearly twenty years later, Loving What Is continues to inspire people all over the world to do The Work; to listen to the answers they find inside themselves; and to open their minds to profound, spacious, and life-transforming insights. The Work is simply four questions that, when applied to a specific problem, enable you to see what is troubling you in an entirely different light.

Artie Says

I firmly believe that happiness is a choice. In 2017, I was blessed to attend a 9-day School for the Work in Ojai, CA. I got to meet Katie, thank her for The Work and for helping me, and give her a hug. It was a truly wondrous and feeing experience, one that I will cherish as long as I live. Any time that you are pissed off, stressed, unhappy, angry, or sad, fill out a worksheet, answer the four questions, and examine the turn-arounds. Peace just might lie right around the next turn.

The first statement that I chose to hold up to inquiry was “Elaine should not have died.” I turned that around to “Elaine should have died.” Then I asked, could that possibly be more true than Elaine should not have died? Doing The Work, I learned that the turnaround to the opposite is almost always more true than the original statement. Why? Because the turn around is what actually happened, in other words, the turn rapid is the reality. That was the beginning.

Here is my very favorite Katie-ism: If you do not like reality grab both ears and bang your head against the Wall of Reality.

As noted above, you can print a free worksheet and learn to do The Work entirely for free by clicking here. Life is about choices.

My Call

As to the two Osprey images, there were some excellent and thought-provoking comments at the last blog post. I was thrilled to see a comment from Tom Schreffler whose e-mail to me inspired my comments on evaluating the work of other photographers in the A Baker’s Dozen. And the Usual Suspects, Also Plus One blog post here.

What’s Up?

I did quite well on Sunday morning with a Mottled Duck in the fog flapping after its bath. When the sun came out I made several nice tight shots at 1200mm of a Limpkin opening freshwater mussels and then chowing down on the meat. On Monday afternoon Jim e-mailed Volume IV of the Digital Basics IV Video Series to all subscribers.

Today is Tuesday 30 December 2025. It was 50° F at 8am with a 22mph WNW wind. With the wind chill, it was supposed to feel like 43* F, but it felt a lot colder than that. I should have headed home at 7:30am but stayed out till 8:15 and wound up with pretty much nothing. And yes, I hope that you too choose to have a wonderful and productive day and that you have fun too. As above, remember that happiness is a choice — Byron Katie, The Work.Com.

If an item — a Delkin flash card or reader, a Levered-clamp FlexShooter Pro, or a Wimberley lens plate or low foot — for example, that is available from B&H and/or Bedfords, is also available in the BAA Online Store, it would be great, and greatly appreciated, if you would opt to purchase from us. We will match or beat any price. Please remember also to use my B&H affiliate links or to earn 3% cash back at Bedford by using the BIRDSASART discount code at checkout for your major gear purchases. Doing either often earns you free guides and/or discounts. And always earns my great appreciation.

Gear Questions and Advice

Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of photographers whom I see in the field and on BirdPhotographer’s.Net, are — out of ignorance — using the wrong gear, especially when it comes to tripods and more especially, tripod heads. And the same is true in spades when ordering new camera bodies or lenses. My advice will often save you some serious money and may help you avoid making a seriously bad choice. Please know that I am always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail.. If you are desperate, you can try me on my cell at 863-221-2372. Please leave a message and shoot me a text if I do not pick up.

This image was created on 28 December 2025 by yours truly down by the lake near my home at Indian Lake Estates, FL. Crouching a bit I used the handheld Sony FE 70-200mm f/2.8 GM OSS II Lens (at 280mm) with theSony FE 1.4x Teleconverter and The Latest Greatest Sony Flagship Body, the a1 II Mirrorless Camera. TThe exposure was determined by Zebras with Exposure Compensation (EC) on the thumb wheel. Multi Metering -1.0 stops. AUTO ISO set ISO 100: 1/5000 second at f/6.3 (stopped down 1 1/3 stops) in Shutter Priority mode. AWB at 7:59:25am just as the sun peeked through the fog. Tracking: Spot XS/AF-C with Bird-Eye/Face Detection performed perfectly. Click on the image to enjoy the larger, inexplicably sharper high-res version. Image #1: Spider web with backlit dewdrops – wide Image courtesy of and copyright 2025: Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

Golden Backlight

It was totally foggy when I headed down to the lake at 7:30am on Sunday past. It was dead calm and the light was ethereal, especially as the sun struggled to get though the fog. Using the 70-200mm with either TC, I spent an hour doing quasi-macro backlit dewy spider webs and lily pad pattern shots. This was my favorite. I had left my Canon 180mm macro lens on the floor of the garage. Going with the super-versatile 70-200 allowed me total freedom as I did not need to use a tripod as I would have had to do with the 180 macro. I did my best to get parallel to the webs but they are never perfectly flat.

When the sun broke through the fog (barely) for a few minutes, I noticed its reflection in the South Canal. The key to the success of today’s images was crouching down so that I lined up the center of the web with the well-muted reflection of the sun on the water. In this and many similar instances, you will not see a whole lot of gold tones either through the viewfinder or in the properly exposed-to-the-right raw file. With experience, you will come to realize that the color is there waiting for you to bring it up during post processing.

Questions for Those Who Would Like to Learn

I created this image at f/6.3, stopped down 1 1/3 stops.

1- Should I have stopped down to f/16 (four full stops)?

2- If yes, why? If no, why not? (Remember that I was handholding …)

3- Would stopping down to f/16 have been feasible? (AGAIN, Remember that I was handholding …)

4- If yes, why? If no, why not?

This image was created on 28 December 2025 by yours truly down by the lake near my home at Indian Lake Estates, FL. Crouching a bit I used the handheld Sony FE 70-200mm f/2.8 GM OSS II Lens (at 280mm) with theSony FE 1.4x Teleconverter and The Latest Greatest Sony Flagship Body, the a1 II Mirrorless Camera. TThe exposure was determined by Zebras with Exposure Compensation (EC) on the thumb wheel. Multi Metering -1.0 stops. AUTO ISO set ISO 100: 1/5000 second at f/6.3 (stopped down 1 1/3 stops) in Shutter Priority mode. AWB at 7:59:25am just as the sun peeked through the fog. Tracking: Spot XS/AF-C with Bird-Eye/Face Detection performed perfectly. Click on the image to enjoy the larger, inexplicably sharper high-res version. Image #2: Spider web with backlit dewdrops – cropped to a vertical Image courtesy of and copyright 2025: Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

Cropped to a Vertical

Image #2 is simply a tighter vertical crop of Image #1. Image #1 was a small crop of the original. I was able to crop without compunction because of the superb image quality of a sharp, 51MP a-1-ii raw file. In fact, this one was exceptionally sharp.

Your Call?

Which do you like best, Image #1, the wider version, or Image #2, the vertical crop of the same frame? Why?

70-200 Versatility

The 70-200mm f/2.8 lenses are astonishingly versatile no matter what system you are using. All but the first edition of the Canon RF 70-200 f/2.8 do well with either teleconverter; this adds to their versatility. (Canon users are advised to purchase one of the two RF Z versions, the white one, the Canon RF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS USM Z Lens (White) or the black one, the Canon RF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS USM Z Lens (Black). Both accept either teleconverter.)

The Sony version II is a huge improvement over the original version as it offers with faster and more accurate autofocus with or without either TC. The lenses in this class are excellent for scenic and landscape photography, for pattern shots, for flowers, for quasi-macro — bugs, butterflies, dragonflies, and frogs for example, and for birds — bird-scapes, portraits, and for flight and action.

I use mine a ton for flowers at Indian Lake Estates, for Bald Eagle flight photography at Homer, and for the Brandt’s Cormorants in San Diego. The minimum focusing distances (MFDs) of this lens at various focal lengths are quite impressive. I believe that at 70mm it focuses down to 17 inches! The small MFDs allow for the quasi-macro stuff. Whenever I leave mine in my vehicle I usually wind up wishing that I had brought it along. If you are interested in the second San Diego 2026 IPT in mid-January (I have room at the AirBnB) or the Homer IPTs in February 2027, please get in touch via e-mail or shoot me a text to 863-221-2372.

Check out the versatility of my Sony FE 70-200mm f/2.8 GM OSS II Lens in these blog posts:

Franklin Flats, Homer Magic

Sometimes, I am Just Plain Lazy: 70-200mm Versatility, a Quasi-Jiggle Blur, and Captivated by a Beach Plant

Sony 70-200mm f/2.8 GM II Versatility (and Death) on the Beach

70-200mm Versatility is the Name of the Game at La Jolla

Sony 70-200mm II/a-1 (No Teleconverter!) Rocks La Jolla

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