On the weekend, I grabbed a bit of time to photograph; both around the yard and by the lake at camp. The number and variety of odes seemed small but they were around.
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Yesterday morning the neighborhood kids arrived carrying a small stick bearing an interesting story… I guess that we have developed a reputation!!
While I was photographing (see the first image below), Joan was Googling and discovered that what the kids had discovered was a hornworm bearing cocoons of a braconid wasp. We all learned something!
Later in the day, I spent a couple of hours down at the beaver swamp at the back of our property; I had not been down there for more than a month.
Again, it seemed that the number and variety of odes were small. There were a few large darners cruising the meadow and small numbers of female spreadwings at the edge of the pond. The most common odes were meadowhawks at the margins of the swamp.
However, there were still some interesting stories to capture and I came home wet and happy!
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Dr. Gorga, what kind of lens are using on these? I can never get a good macro like these. Maybe I just scare away my subjects too easily too.
Comment by Ian — 21 August 2012 @ 1:37 PM
Ian,
All of these photos (except for the hornworm, where I used my 90 mm macro lens))were taken with a 70-300 mm zoom fitted with a 36 mm extension tube. This set up is able to be focused between about 200 mm and 300 mm and gives a working (close focus) distance of roughly (I’ve never actually measured it) 2 feet at 200 mm and 3 feet at 300 mm.
This is a very good combination for dragonflies. However, it does not provide quite enough magnification to “fill the frame” with a damselfly, so many of these images are moderate crops. I have tried adding additional extension tubes but the higher magnification requires a steadier hand than I have so my “keeper ratio” goes way down. I use a monopod to steady my rig. A tripod is just too cumbersome for rapid moving subjects while standing or kneeling in the reeds/grasses of a pond or marsh!
On rare occasions (such as this one most recently: http://gorga.org/blog/wp-content/gallery/17-aug-2012/dsc5955.jpg), I can use a 90 mm macro lens; these occasions are few and far between.
Most of these images are shot at f/11 or f/16, so keeping the shutter speed reasonable (I try to stay at 1/500 sec as a minimum) often requires ISO 400 and sometimes ISO 800. Thus, good noise reduction software is required. Post-processing, in general, is a large part of the process.
I also use flash on many of these photos (although I did not have my flash for the first set of photos in this post. The flash is used mainly as fill and is generally set to one or one-and-a-half stops below the ambient exposure.
Check this post (http://gorga.org/blog/?p=145) from a couple of years ago for the details of my “ode rig”. There is also an article at Luminous Landscape (see: http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/hidden_in_plain_site.shtml) in which a fellow describes his approach to dragonflies. It is quite similar to mine.
Finally, time spent in the field is important. Time for practice is important. One needs to have enough experience so that the mechanics of photography and stalking (moving around subjects without disturbing them) become second nature. Then one can concentrate on perfecting the compositions (i.e. getting the right angles and backgrounds). Time is also important because one often has to wait patiently for critters to be present in the right spots and doing interesting things.
The last four photos in the second set were the result of roughly two hours of standing around in the beaver swamp. I probably pressed the shutter release 120 to 150 times. I take lots of similar shots of a subject… after all, these are living moving reacting creatures and thus there “pose” is constantly changing. I also working the angles for the best composition. In addition to getting a good angle on the subject, I am always trying for an uncluttered background. I also make frames where I vary the aperture, in order to get the best background blur. I have many photos of interesting subjects with lousy backgrounds. These never make the final cut when editing!
I found the ovipositing damselfly roughly twenty after minutes I arrived in the swamp and photographed it for about 10 minutes. It was roughly thirty minutes later I came across the meadowhawk. This fellow was actively feeding and I watched him take prey for five or ten minutes before I was able to get the shot I have displayed. It is the best (in terms of telling the story) of the fifteen or twenty exposures I made as he ate the prey. I probably watched him for another five or ten minutes before moving on.
Of course, sometimes you get lucky. The last shot above is an example. I was heading back to the house and had just reached the edge of the surrounding woods when I noticed this fellow alight on this branch roughly ten feet away. I took two frames for “insurance” at that distance (it was really too far away and the final image is a crop) and began to carefully move in closer… he flew away on the second step!
Thus one needs “time, patience and luck” (see page 14, here: http://www.bridgew.edu/review/archives/2011/December.pdf) in addition to the “technical stuff”!
I have probably gone on way too long, but I hope this helps,
— Frank
P.S. Most of my dragonfly photos are made in the late afternoon. This set was all shot between four and six in the afternoon. The critters are active most of the day, but the light is much better when it does not come from too high an angle.
Comment by Frank — 21 August 2012 @ 3:11 PM
Should I be addressing you as Dr. Gorga as well? Great explanation for Ian – the biggest tip was the practice one and knowing your subject.
Another great set of captures here.
SBCC has a very impressive set of speakers for this year. Several of them presented at NECCC. Maybe next year, I’ll skip Amherst and just catch them in Wrentham 🙂
Comment by Just Joe — 22 August 2012 @ 2:50 PM