Damselfly Portrait's

[deetheturk]

Two recent Damselfly Portrait's C&C Welcome!


#1


#2


Cheers David...

[John 2]

David, what are you doing to get these. They never stand still long enough for me. Two excellent shots. Perhaps a tad more saturation for the first - maybe??

[ajohnw]

David, what are you doing to get these. They never stand still long enough for me. Two excellent shots. Perhaps a tad more saturation for the first - maybe??

Perhaps David super glues them in place

I have had them stay still for more than long enough but no chance at all of getting that angle.

John
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[Brownbear]

Inspiring to say the least! Yes, please do teach us something.

[ajohnw]

My suggestion wasn't serious.


What I found with UK damsels is that they do flit about and if any are seen there is a need to be patient and wait for one to settle. When I took my shots recently they came and went fairly regularly as well. Each time I took the camera out I hung around for an hour or so to see what turned up. Most insects I saw behaved like this apart from bees. They tend to remain for periods that depend on what they have settled on. Butterflies too.

Tried hunting through grass and bushes but no luck. Maybe there will be next time

John
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[bnnrcn]

Stunning images David I think these critters have extra eyes too . Three small brown spots in the middle are eyes aren't they ? Or two eyes and a nose?

[Wavelength]

Simply astounding stuff!!!!!!

[deetheturk]

Cheers John, nothing different really, just set my lens to manual and 1-1 mag and hope my ninja training holds up before it takes off!

[deetheturk]

Hi John, superglue works best but can be a nightmare if your finger gets stuck to the shutter button

On the serious side this was the first time i was able to get close enough for 1-1 mag without it flying away

[deetheturk]

Cheers Christina, its just lots of waiting,frustration and a lot of luck plus a full bin of nearly keepers

One tip i got from Steven from Brunei, if that's how you spell it was when Damsel and Dragonfly's take off they nearly always return to the same spot!

[deetheturk]

Hi again John, they tend to be the same the world over, these shots were early evening when like early morning they are not so skittish!

There is always a next time bud, so just keep at it

David

[deetheturk]

Cheers Binnur, I have been trying to find out about the eyes and although these other things look like extra eyes, I cannot find anything saying they are but i only had a quick look so i stand to be corrected

[deetheturk]

Thank you Nandakumar for the kind comments

[Bobobird]

David. I don't think I have ever seen anyone do damselflies like this. Dragons, yes, damsels no. Amazing work.

[Shadowman]

Nice series.

[ajohnw]

Cheers Christina, its just lots of waiting,frustration and a lot of luck plus a full bin of nearly keepers

One tip i got from Steven from Brunei, if that's how you spell it was when Damsel and Dragonfly's take off they nearly always return to the same spot!

I suspect Geoff does things differently but I've found it's easiest to find some insect activity, hang around and watch for opportunities. The impression I had of damsels is that periodically they settle and sun themselves. They did keep coming back. The area I was in had sun and deep shadows. The breeding pair I found were in mild shade. I'm really annoyed about that shot. Not possible to do anything ideal with the background without a lot of serious hand painting even between the wing detail.

One thing people do is carefully walk around fields early morning and see what they can find. I'm getting a little old for lying around in damp grass now or maybe lack the inclination but I have even seen high detail stacked shots taken with the Canon high mag macro lens this way hand held, both elbows on the ground. Given suitable cloths who knows I might get tempted one day but not with this particular lens..

John
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[John 2]

I suspect Geoff does things differently but I've found it's easiest to find some insect activity, hang around and watch for opportunities. The impression I had of damsels is that periodically they settle and sun themselves. They did keep coming back. The area I was in had sun and deep shadows. The breeding pair I found were in mild shade. I'm really annoyed about that shot. Not possible to do anything ideal with the background without a lot of serious hand painting even between the wing detail.

One thing people do is carefully walk around fields early morning and see what they can find. I'm getting a little old for lying around in damp grass now or maybe lack the inclination but I have even seen high detail stacked shots taken with the Canon high mag macro lens this way hand held, both elbows on the ground. Given suitable cloths who knows I might get tempted one day but not with this particular lens..

John
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I couldn't agree more. Stalking them doesn't usually work. You generally have to wait for them to come to you. It also helps to have the right lens on the camera and for me means concentrating on just the one subject. I have missed so many shots because they depart whilst I'm still trying to mount a macro lens.

[Stagecoach]

Stunning David ! The extra three eyes on the top are called 'ocelli' and are known as 'simple eyes' whereas the large ones are the 'compound' eyes. I know this because I googled it

I have found one simple way to find the details on these bugs is to google them and look at the 'images' and there's often a sketch in there somewhere showing the parts list with names.

Seriously, you captured these superbly your technique works well which as I see from the settings is the same old routine.

Cheers, Grahame

[Mark von Kanel]

stunning work, you have far more patience than i do!

[ajohnw]

I couldn't agree more. Stalking them doesn't usually work. You generally have to wait for them to come to you. It also helps to have the right lens on the camera and for me means concentrating on just the one subject. I have missed so many shots because they depart whilst I'm still trying to mount a macro lens.

I think there is a need to say I'm going out to shoot macro.

What I have done on m 4/3 - 4 different cameras so far is set F14 and leave it and accept that at times I wont be able to get max magnification shots so think more about how many pixels I have under the specimen which really means how big it is in the viewfinder. Less mag means more depth of field. If I tried to be more specific I feel the tripod would have to come out. I'm not sure a monopod would help unless it's set at exactly the right height. Using the gear like this it means I can patrol a region with insects and try to shoot anything that stays still long enough. Keeps me amused and hoping something I find interesting turns up. Which is just about anything at the moment. I also click away several times when I do take a shot if I can.

I also find that when I shoot like this I eventually relax and don't tense up trying to keep the camera steady and that aspect improves a lot too.

I get so wrapped up I don't notice that the shutter speed has dropped too low. Flash will fix that. Maybe.

John
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