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Just Before (Almost) Disaster, Pt. 2 - _TNY_0857

So back in late August (of 2022) I went for an afternoon trip to the Svartkällsskogen nature reserve in Botkyrka, Sweden.

 

There are several bogs along the edge of lake Lilla Skogssjön (literally: "small forest lake") so I brought my waders which made walking around in the bog much easier. I kept them on when I reached the outlet of the Uringeån creek where I found this common winter damsel (Sympecma fusca) with a wonderful pair of pale eyes who stayed still enough for me to get a couple of shots.

 

Do zoom in on the eyes - the detail is worth it.

 

Right after this I tried walking along the creek instead of following the path for a better chance of seing dragonflies - which was a bad move.

 

It was slow to walk because of all the dead trees on the rather uneven ground with high grass and after a while I stepped on a log and my rather slippery waders lost traction and I fell on my side. Unfortunately, the ground there wasn't even either which made me roll further - and into the creek!

 

Somehow I managed to go into the water feet first and the water there was a little more than waist deep, but that meant that everything in my pockets - including the phone and the Canon MP-E65mm lens - was under the surface!

 

Now obviously I got out as fast as I could and began getting everything out of my pockets and onto a dry log. I had nothing to dry my things with as the shirt was completely soaked, but to my joy, the phone (which isn't IP-certified) managed to keep the water out and continued to work.

 

The barrel of the MP-E65 extends when you increase magnification and when I did, it came out wet. Using some toilet paper I had in the backpack I could dry it off, roll it back again and when extending it had more water on it so I stood there, soaking wet in the forest and repeted the extending and barrel-wiping over and over again.

 

Fortunately for me, it survived the bath just fine.

 

Part 1 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/52324967245/

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Uploaded on March 3, 2023
Taken on August 26, 2022