DRAGONFLY BY ANNE McGILL - SCULPTURE IN CONTEXT 2015

NOTE: Since taking these photographs I have abandoned the idea of using the Metabones adaptor and I have invested a lot of cash in native lenses.

Anne McGill is an Irish sculptor working from her studio in Dublin. Anne´s sculpture has evolved over the last two decades from semi-abstract figurative bronze sculptures to large outdoor ephemeral sculptures and more recently ´found objects´ installations.

Anne has used the theme of music in a lot of her artwork and has made various musically themed sculptures for site specific commissions.

She is presently working on outdoor installations and large garden sculptures using various materials. She has created ceramic sculptures, wooden sculptures, stone sculptures, metal sculptures and lately willow and hessian sculptures.

I experimented with a Sigma 180mm lens mounted on a Sony A7RM2 body using a Metabones adaptor.

This combination does not work in Auto-Focus mode so I had to use manual focusing and this was not easy and it certainly would have been impossible without focus peaking [a feature that I have never properly employed before]. In case you are unaware focus peaking is a tool to assist you while manual focusing. It highlights the areas that are in focus so you are able to quickly focus the camera and not miss crucial shots. However, focus peaking is not as easy as it sounds because it shows you what's sharp on the viewfinder screen, not what's sharp in the actual image. Since the screen or viewfinder has a much lower resolution than the actual camera sensor areas that are highlighted as being sharp in the viewfinder can be very much out of focus in the image you actually capture.

The Dragonfly on the pond was difficult to photograph as it kept moving.

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