Project 52 Q1 Week 7: First shots from Western Australia

[billtils]

Good first night sleep after the 18h journey from Edinburgh to Perth and the 3h drive from Perth to Margaret River.

Basking lizard:
The first is one of a family of lizards that live underneath a built up structure in the vegetable patch. I had always thought of basking lizards as lethargic sleepy heads - wrong! These are alert and disappear in a flash at the first sign of any movement.




Buzzing off:
The next two are of bees in flight as they leave or approach a Grevillea bush.




Buzzing in:




Basking dragon:

And lastly, a red dragon fly basking on a dead Bird of Paradise flower. There were quite a few red dragon flies buzzing around in the early afternoon sunshine. Capturing one in flight was a total failure (this time at least ...). I got a few at rest and have posted this one because I was intrigued by the way the wings acted as a lens and picked up some of the body red.





EDITED "Basking dragon" to take account of Art's comments on framing - thanks Art!

[Artshot]

I like your photos, but they would be even better if we could get closer. One of the things I like about my D750 is the ability to get that extra magnification by cropping. Guess it depends on the photos intended use.

[billtils]

but it they would be even better if we could get closer. One of the things I like about my D750 is the ability to get that extra magnification by cropping. Guess it depends on the photos intended use.

Thanks Art

Have you tried capturing insects in flight? It's all a matter of chance and "Getting closer" is often more of a dream than a reality There's also the DoF limitation with the 90mm macro lens and with larger targets (such as the dragon fly) I try to keep far enough back to maintain a reasonable DoF. As for the lizard - they are so much on the alert that if you can see them, they can see you and as soon as you move, off they go!

But yes, as well as its great low light performance, the D750 stands out in how aggressively it let's you crop - I find the images on it are better quality than the equivalent from the D7100 using a lesser crop (but don't want to get into the FF v Crop IQ debate )

[Shadowman]

Nice series.

[billtils]

Art - I edited the "Basking dragon" shot to take account of your input - thanks for the feedback.

[Wavelength]

All excellent images!!!