Posts in Category: dragonflies
10/22/2011: Female Green Darner, Irvine CA
I believe this is a female Green Darner Dragonfly. Green Darners were patrolling the pond edges and paths at the San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary in Irvine California in great numbers…and unlike the Green Darners I tried to photograph in Ohio and Maine, these were actually lighting on occasion and still long enough for me to get some shots.
This shot is pretty amazing to me. It is the Canon SX40HS at 840mm equivalent with 2x digital tel-extender engaged, for the equivalent field of view of a 1680mm lens on a full frame DSLR…handheld at about 4.5 feet. f5.8 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 400. Talk about your telephoto macro! Totally impressive!
Processed in Lightroom for Intensity and Sharpness.
10/6/2011: Dragonfly at the limits
On my short visit to Henriticus City Park (a historical reenactment site near Chester VA, and the main offices for ZEISS Sports Optics) after work yesterday, I found this dragonfly sitting on the tip of a stripped willow branch out over the marsh…too far away. But, with my new fascination with dragonflies, I had to try.
I like it as an image. I like the arch of the branch and the final wispy twist isolated against the sky…and the way the dragonfly (I think just a well aged Ruby Meadowhawk) in its sun-posting pose echoes it. I like the evening light of the low sun.
And that I got the image at all is somewhat amazing to me. The Canon SX40is locked on focus on the first attempt and I shot several images at the long end of the zoom, 840mm equivalent field of view. The Canon’s image stabilization is amazing. Even at 840mm this is a heavily cropped image…well over 50%, down to 2700×1560 from 4000×3000…leaving about 4.2mp out of 12. That is a pretty heavy crop for a Point and Shoot super-zoom! Clicking the image will take you to my WideEyedInWonder site where you can see an even larger version.
Canon SX40is at 840mm equivalent field of view. f5.8 @ 1/200th @ ISO 100. Program.
Processed in Lightroom for Clarity and Sharpness.
9/21/2011: Face to face with a Dragon
For Wings on Wednesday, lets go with dragonflies. There were a lot of dragonflies in Ohio, but they would not sit for me. I saw Common Green Darners in great numbers, and a couple of Black Saddlebags. No pics! I think this is a worn and weary Ruby Meadowhawk sitting on the rail of the boardwalk at Magee Marsh. Worn because its color is dull and the face plate is dingy rather than white. Weary because it sat for its portrait at 32mm equivalent field of view and with the camera inches from its tail (second shot).
And I was so close here I had to crop out the shadow of the camera behind the bug.
Nikon Coolpix P500 in Close UP mode: 1) 60mm equivalent field of view. f4.6 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 160. 2) 32mm equivalent (the auto setting for Close UP mode), f4.5 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 160.
Processed in Lightroom for Clarity and Sharpness.
9/13/2011: Bugs on Fern
There are lots of these Ruby Meadowhawks around in Southern Maine right now, and I have taken maybe too many of pics of them…question: “can you have too many pics of a Ruby Meadowhawk?” I could not resist this one, since the sun-lit fern makes such a great backdrop.
And, on the same theme, a tiny Hover Fly against a similar background.
Nikon Coolpix P500 in Close Up mode…auto zoom setting overridden. 1) 403mm equivalent field of view, f5.6 @ 1/250th @ ISO 160. 2) 309mm, f5.4 @ 1/640th @ ISO 160.
Processed in Lightroom for Clarity and Sharpness. Both images cropped for scale and composition.
9/11/2011: Black Saddlebags, Happy Sunday
Happy Sunday.
As I mentioned a few days ago in the Ruby Meadowhawk post, I have started what appears to be a little love affair with dragonfiles. Suddenly they are everywhere I look, I am taking a lot of pics, and my iPhone Audubon Field Guide to New England, which has a good section on dragonflies, is getting a good workout. Browsing there, a while back, trying to identify a dragonfly I had managed to catch with my camera, I came upon an image of the Black Saddlebags…one of the larger and showier of the New England dragonflies (found everywhere in the US east of the Rockies, as a matter of fact). Okay, so I want to catch an image of one of those! I saw a few in the air earlier in the summer during my rambles, but they never settled for a pic. Of course that just made me want one more. It turns out those early flies may have been vagrants from the south. The Saddlebags only reach adult stage in late summer here in Maine, so this specimen is most likely newly awing. And clearly more cooperative.
I saw it cross the beach and settle a the edge of the beach rose on the dunes (I was chanting “land, land, land” the whole way), but by the time I got there the Saddlebags had moved in a few yards. I had to maneuver among the rose bushes to get a shot. It was sitting in full sun, but deeper in among twigs and grass stems, and there was no clear shot that showed the full bug. The only way to get a full body shot was to stand in my own light and shoot the dragonfly in my shadow. I was pretty sure that as soon as my shadow touched it it would be up and away…but it sat.
And here is a full sun shot for contrast.
One spectacular bug!
Nikon Coolpix P500 in Close Up mode with the zoom setting overriden. 1) 403mm equivalent field of view, f5.6 @ 1/80th @ ISO 400. 2) 538mm, f5.7 @ 1/40th @ ISO 200. 3) 499mm, f5.7 @ 1/250th @ ISO 160.
Processed in Lightroom for Clarity and Sharpness. 1) and 2) adjusted for color temperature and Vibrance to more closely match the balance of 3).
Sunday thought: Every time I look at these images in the future, I will remember the thrill of taking them…and the feeling of deep gratitude and crazy joy that lasted all the way back to the car after. Right now, writing about it, and looking at the images, that same feeling is there, just behind the words. I am grinning here. I will probably take better pics of Saddlebags in the future…but these will always be special. Special in part because of the anticipation…because of wanting them since I saw the first Saddlebags in my reference and on the wing…and special because I had to dodge rose bush thorns to get them…but most special because of the feeling of being in the right place at the right time and ready for the blessing. No credit to me. The joy of these shots has nothing to to with self-satisfaction…it has everything to do with appreciation of the gift. (And not “my gift” as in “a gifted photographer”…but something I have not earned, and don’t deserve…an outright gift from someone who loves me.) While taking the images I was, of course, concentrating on angles, light values, zoom settings, and all the technical stuff of photography…and holding my breath (almost literally) lest the bug fly…but in a sense I was also totally absent from myself…completely caught up in the wonder of the moment. And when I stepped back down off the dune to return to the car, I was only aware of the gift. And grinning like…well…like a very happy man (or maybe boy). And that is what it is all about. Photography. Nature study. My new love affair with dragonfiles. To be so gifted I can only grin.
9/2/2011: Bugs on Stone, Rutland Water UK
In my one all too short walk around to the far side of the Visitor Center lagoon at Rutland Water, I found that the stone of the path seemed to attract a lot of bug life. They were not particularly cooperative. I suspect that the path carried the vibration of my foot falls well ahead of me, and the bugs were up and away while I was still out of zoom range. Eventually I caught on, and stood and waited just out of reach until the bugs rose and settled closer to me. The waiting game.
We have here, if you take the word of a novice at bugs in general and certainly a tourist among British bugs (not a good idea), a Gatekeeper, a Common Blue Damselfly, a Common Darter, and a Speckled Wood. Each image is linked to a larger version on Wide Eyed In Wonder.
Nikon Coolpix P500 in Close Up mode, with the default zoom setting overridden. 1) 403mm equivalent field of view, f5.6 @ 1/640th @ ISO 160. 2) 810mm, f5.7 @ 1/640th @ ISO 160. 3) the same. 4) 538mm, f5.6 @ 1/320th @ ISO 160.
Processed in Lightroom for Clarity and Sharpness. All but 3) cropped for scale.
8/19/2011: Autumn Meadowhawk (I think)
I am still very much learning my dragonflies. I think this is an Autumn Meadowhawk…though it is not yet autumn and this was taken at streamside…not in a meadow. Still…
This is the other common Odanata at Emmons Preserve in late summer.
Nikon Coolpix P500 at 620mm equivalent field of view (absolute max on Close-Up mode on the Coolpix), f5.7 @ 1/160 @ ISO 160.
Processed in Lightroom for Clarity and Sharpness. Cropped for scale.
8/18/2011: Ebony Jewelwings
As I mentioned in a previous post, on a recent explore at Emmons Preserve in Kennebunkport, the Ebony Jewelwings were super abundant and super active. We have two males and a female here, the males resting from the incessant aerial combat over the stream.
Nikon Coolpix P500 at 500mm equivalent field of view, f5.7 @ 1/320th @ ISO 160. Close-Up mode. This is a full-frame, uncropped shot.
Processed in Lightroom for Clarity and Sharpness.
7/13/2011: Odonata. A different Wings on Wednesday.
There are a lot of dragonflies at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens when we visited last Friday. I used to think anything that looked like a dragonfly was a dragonfly…but I am learning, slowly, about damsels, darners, spreadwings, skimmers, and emeralds. As near as I can tell, the critter above is a Twelve Spotted Skimmer, though it lacks the cloudy blue patches on the wings of the other 12 Spots I photographed that day, and certainly has some extra color in the tail.
I found images on the internet of both these types, all labeled 12 Spotted Skimmer…so we will go with that until someone who really knows their Odonata sets me right 😉
I also found this Emerald Spreadwing resting on a leaf (for about a second) where it is somewhat difficult to see. The best part of photographing Odonata at a place like the CMBG, is the backgrounds!
And this Blue Darner resting on rock where it is really hard to see (the wings at least)…and, as you may notice, very hard for the camera to focus on. It was pretty still so I wish I had taken the time to check focus after the shot…but there it is! Just a “for the record” shot.
Nikon Coolpix P500 in (except for the Darner) Close Up scene mode, with the zoom setting over-ridden. 1) 499mm equivalent field of view, f5.7 @ 1/320th @ ISO 160. 2) 468mm @ f5.7 @ 1/200th @ ISO 160. 3) 435mm @ F5.6 @ 1/250th @ ISO 160. 4) 578mm @ f5.7 @ 1/200th @ ISO 160. 5) 810mm @ f5.7 @ 1/320th @ ISO 160.
Processed in Lightroom for Clarity and Sharpness.