Re: Bug Life

Thanks Roy. The last specimen ( a Southern Hawker ? ) was in an Alder tree when I spotted it.

Galatas

The last specimen ( a Southern Hawker ? ) was in an Alder tree when I spotted it.

When resting on sunny days hawkers often seem to need to find some shade every now and then - almost always choosing to hang from a bare branch/twig with easy access!

The last two dragonflies are Southern Hawkers, with two Four-spotted Chasers above them, and four Common Darters, The damsels are three shots of Azure, one Large Red, and the Blue-tailed already mentioned by Aiki (just in case you wanted some confirmation!).

Brilliant set of shots again Galatas. I have tried a few myself over the years and struggle to get enough depth of field. Thanks Roy for all the extra information. It's wonderful to have people on the forum with so much knowledge which they don't mind sharing. I am surprised I don't come across more resting damsels and dragons amongst my garden plants. Last year I found this one on a cupboard just outside my back door. For a while I couldn't work out what was going on and then I realised it was a dragon fly emerging from the nymph stage. Presumably she is waiting to warm up before flying off? There were half a dozen discarded nymph 'skeletons' in the vicinity, so it must have been a popular place, even though it is just a cupboard under a lean to.

Here's one of my attempts... Sitting on a rather unhealthy pickerel weed leaf in my pond.

And another on a rose bush...

Could watch them for hours. And often do!

Some simply amazing shots. [maybe I should just stick to photographing cricket and football matches and leave the wild-life to experts like yourself.

Wow Tulip that last one is simply stunning.

Nice shots there Tulip.

WOW Galatas - I have only just seen this thread and those photographs are absolutely amazing.  The detail is unbelievable.  Yours too, Tulip.  I am so envious of your cameras and photography skills!

Thank you Galatas and Alan and Christine. Can't touch Galatas for quality and I still haven't managed to photograph a flying dragon yet! That really takes some skill.

These are the only two "flying" Dragon shots I have ever managed. I don't think they're very good. It was just about to deposit its'  eggs in the weed.

Hi Galatas, these are great. Much better than anything I can manage. Catching the female just before she is about to lay her eggs gives you the best chance of a 'flying' shot doesn't it? When they are whipping back and forth across the pond, even if I get one in my sights, there isn't time for me (or for my camera) to focus! lol It makes 'birds in flight' shots seem that little bit easier!

Tulip

Hi Galatas, these are great. Much better than anything I can manage. Catching the female just before she is about to lay her eggs gives you the best chance of a 'flying' shot doesn't it? When they are whipping back and forth across the pond, even if I get one in my sights, there isn't time for me (or for my camera) to focus! lol It makes 'birds in flight' shots seem that little bit easier!

The easiest flying dragonflies to photograph are those the species that hover regularly. If you spend some time watching patrolling males of species like Southern Hawker, Migrant Hawker. Downy Emerald, and Four-spotted Chaser, you will usually find that they have favoured spots where they will tend to hover (usually for just a few seconds). Find yourself a position which gives you as clean a background as possible, and roughly pre-focus on the area - then wait! Try and set a fast shutter speed beforehand, preferably in combination with a small allowance for some depth of field, and hope that the dragonfly hovers with the body parallel to you!

You make it sound sooooo easy :- )

Just to add to Roy's great advice. Manual focus is best, as auto will focus on the background. I still have yet to get a 'decent' flight shot though?

Galatas

You make it sound sooooo easy :- )

Easy? No - but it is achieveable.

Stich

Just to add to Roy's great advice. Manual focus is best, as auto will focus on the background. I still have yet to get a 'decent' flight shot though?

If you can find a position that means that you are far enough away from any distraction background elements, get fairly close with manual pre-focus, and make sure that the focus point is on the dragonfly at the time you press the shutter (with the focus to 'closest object priority' if it's an option on your camera), then you can use automatic focus. I've managed reasonable results with both manual and automatic.

Expect to miss more than you 'hit' though!

A low resolution copy of one of mine: