Dragonflies (5 pics)

[Scottes]

I went back to Great Meadows today looking for more of those dragonflies, and I came prepared - I brought a 36mm tube so my 100-400 could handle the close-ups (and get a bit of magnification to boot).

2.5 hours and 198 pics later (I love digital) here are the keepers.


These guys are pretty cool. And I like the loop.

http://www.itsanadventure.com/postimages/Dragonfly_8941.jpg


This one followed me around for quite a while. Somehow I didn't notice his severely mangled wings. This was his best photo, and about the only one where his wings weren't so distracting.

http://www.itsanadventure.com/postimages/Dragonfly_8981.jpg


The background is so surreal on this shot. I like it.

http://www.itsanadventure.com/postimages/Dragonfly_9065.jpg


Close-up on one of those cool ones.

http://www.itsanadventure.com/postimages/Dragonfly_9073.jpg


One of the green-headed dudes with nice, normal wings.

http://www.itsanadventure.com/postimages/Dragonfly_9105.jpg


I saw two other kinds, too. One was a bright fiery red - very very neat looking Dragonfly. The other was a somewhat small, extremely thin blue one - it looked like a flying needle. Alas, I couldn't get a decent shot from them, even though I took many shots of the red ones.

These were all with the Canon 100-400 L IS with a 36mm tube. (Thanks to the tube I missed one hell of a heron fly-by - it's the price you pay.) Overall I'm pretty happy with the photos, but the lens sure hunted a lot, even though it was fairly bright out. I'm also having a tough time with the contrast on these shots - I spent a while in PS and I'm still not ecstatic.

I'm going to try my Sigma 105mm Macro next time. I'm sure that I will miss the long reach of the 100-400, and the Sigma is not fast with auto-focus. But the optics are very very nice, and dropping the tube may help with the contrast. We'll see. Hopefully on Thursday.

[cmM]

nice looking "dudes", scottes :wink:
I wonder what forms of life you're gonna photograph next... :P

[LazyPhotographer]

These rock! Congratulations! :D

As long as you're getting prepared, here's a tip I read once. Dragonflies have a flight rountine.. once you find them and if you sit still long enough, you will be able to see how they flit around in a pattern. Creatures of habit, so to speak. I think they're checking out their favorite landing or feed spots.. or something like that. Good luck!

[HaLeon]

nice pictures! good contrast, brillant colors and good composition..

I like them all!

[Ian_H]

Fantastic shots, I tried to shoot some dragon flies in flight with the 1D MKII and 70-200 but failed miserably



Cheers
Ian

[JZaun]

Excellent shots Scottes. Nice job.

I been chasing a solid black DF all summer every time I go to the botanical. It is about 3" across the wings, looks like a fighter aircraft but the thing won't land anywhere, just keeps breaking the sound barrier :lol:

JZ