It was a beautiful sunny day here yesterday. So, I grabbed my camera gear fully intending to photograph some small birds at Hendrie Valley. I forgot it was Family Day in Ontario and the trails at Hendrie were jammed with young families. Switching to Plan B made a lot of sense so I headed back to the Royal Botanical Gardens main building.

NOTE: Click on images to enlarge.

It may seem a bit odd to go out intending to photograph birds but ending up capturing images of flowers with the same camera gear.

One of the reasons that I purchased an M.Zuiko PRO 40-150 mm f/2.8 zoom lens was to use it for flower photography. I’ve always enjoyed the flexibility that zoom lenses provide.

Using longer focal length zoom lenses for flower photography can be very effective. This is especially true when using smaller sensor cameras when we may want to create shallow depth-of-field in our images.

As noted in a previous article, we can achieve shallow depth-of-field in a number of ways. One of which is to use a longer focal length.

I renewed my membership at the Royal Botanical Gardens recently. Having bird habitat as well as a good selection of flower photography options close at hand makes switching to Plan B easy.

Photographing flowers in the winter does limit subject matter to whatever is available indoors. When switching to Plan B it pays to be flexible and to take advantage of whatever the Universe provides.

Since I’m still doing field work for bird and flower photography eBook projects I imagine that switching to Plan B will be a frequent occurrence for me in the months ahead.

I may have to start packing my M.Zuiko 60 mm f/2.8 macro lens when I go out birding at Hendrie Valley. It would give me more creative options when switching to Plan B.

Switching to Plan B also adds to our ability to be flexible when it comes to our photography. This is a great mental exercise… and of special importance to ‘old dogs’ like me!

Towards the end of my Plan B visit to the Royal Botanical Gardens I took the opportunity to add the M.Zuiko MC-20 teleconverter to my camera set up.

This gave me the chance to practice my handheld technique at slower shutter speeds using this gear. It also enabled me to get some of my best images of the day.

As I was descending the stairs to a lower level I noticed some interesting light. I ended up standing on the stairs and shooting through a fence-like structure in order to capture the following two images.

These photographs were two of my favourites from my Plan B visit.

Many of us have limited time in our schedules to go out to create images with our cameras. Having a Plan B is one way we can always make the most of our photographic time.

Technical Note:
Photographs were captured handheld using camera gear as noted in the EXIF data. All images were produced from RAW files using my standard process.

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