You will need to look carefully or you might think this is just a shot of standing cattail reeds. Can you see the subject of interest. There is a White-tailed Deer standing in the reeds. A tricky focus problem…but Sony’s Direct Manual Focus handled it. 

There is a poem that goes with this image too. I will add it at the end.

Sony Rx10iii at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with Direct Manual Focus. 1/500th @ f4 @ ISO 100. Processed in Polarr. 

The poem:

As I stood on the Marsh View 
deck at Laudholm Farms, 
listening to a Marsh Wren sing 
and looking for the source, 
I saw movement through the 
cattail reeds, maybe 30 yards 
out. Something big and mammal 
like. It took me a long moment 
of looking before my eyes, 
before my brain, could sort the 
shapes and assemble them, 
puzzle like, through the reeds. 
Yes two big ears, and a long 
nose, and a body almost completely 
screened, but there. A White Tailed 
Deer. She stood and looked at me, 
probably more certain of what 
I was than I was of her. I raised the 
camera and focused manually to 
see if I could capture the magic 
of the moment…and then, greedy,
shifted just to my left to try for 
a better line of sight, and she was 
off, bounding high, white flag 
following, splashing through the 
water and the reeds toward the 
safety of the wooded shore.