It’s about 90 degrees out at Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Reserve, and I’m out here sweating for one main reason: dragonflies. I even forgot my hat, wore jeans (bad call), and still decided to push through because this spot is one of the places where I always get them. Along the way I picked up a few other moments too—song sparrow, a nice little damsel fly after watching where it liked to land, a beautiful blue heron sitting near the water, and some incoming Canadian geese (and yeah, I still don’t know why they’d want to come here). The whole afternoon is basically me being patient, watching flight paths, and trying to catch those quick landings in harsh, bright sun. Gear-wise, I’m testing the Canon R5 II with the RF 100-500mm for real-world wildlife—especially birds in flight and fast insects. I’ll say it again: anything below 600mm is really not enough for “real wildlife” in my opinion unless you’re on a crop body, because that perceived reach helps a lot. The 100-500 is a fantastic lens on any body, but it’s better on crop bodies for that reason, and personally I really like 800mm when I can. The other big test for me out there was heat management—seeing if the R5 II would overheat in high-90-degree shooting, and on this outing it held up.