A male Common Darter was defending my pond against all comers this afternoon, so I took advantage of his occasional hovers by trying to get the best shot I could. I used the 70-200/4 for its relatively close minimum focus, focusing manually. Camera was set to manual so as not to be thrown by dark backgrounds, as I was shooting against the light. All exposures between 1/2000 and 1/4000 at f/8, lens at 200mm. ISO 1600, cleaned by Lightroom 3. They are all cropped a bit from the original frame, but some not by that much - I was framing as tight as I could.
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When I went to get the 1.4x extender to try and get closer still, he cleared off and I never saw him again all day.





