dune grass

please comment

Nice shot, it looks like you caught this dragon fly as it was just landing. I think the impressive part is that you have motion blur on the stalks and the dragonfly is relativly in focus. Good capture.

 

Don

thank you for the comment. there was a good degree of luck involved. it was a little windy, and the dragon fly was impatient. dof was so critical that the lft wings are sharper than the right. this was close to minimun focus distance, so i am pleased with the result. this onemay find a place on the wall at home.

 

just took a quick look at your photos. WOW is the best word that comes to mind. Thanks for giving mine some of your time

Steve, nice composition and light but your insect is far too blurred to give the shot any imapct. Regards - Paul Chilton.

I like the impact that this image has. the model was finicky though, and did'nt want to stick around for m eto bracket the focus. looks like i had about 1 inch DOF, since the left wings are sharp and the right ones are not. the body is somewhere in between. I certainly am going to keep trying though.

maybe if i pay the model better it will stick around longer?? Maybe I just need to spend more time trying.

 

thanks for the comments, they are inspiring

 

after flipping through many other photos i suspect that i would need more time to sharpen up the focus. i would have to put the camera on a tripod, which would require patience to get the model to pose properly. maybe a 200mm macro lense would help too\

That would deffinetly keep you far enough away but I think the biggest problem was the fact that you caught him in motion. Thats why I still think this is a great shot, these little guys are pretty fast.

 

About the only way I think to compensate would be to use a higher shutter speed but then your apeture goes down.

 

Don

thanks for the comment Don, I did capute this one in a hurry. I may need some new toys, since htis was shot with a fixed aperature (F*8) lense. the only way to speed up the shutter is to use faster film. I guess its time to look for an autofocus 200mm macro with vibration reduction. Even that would not buy me the most important ingredient for great photos(time), but it would manke it easier. My 55mm macro is tough to use with insects(great for flowers though).

Thanks again for the comments/suggestions

All you need with insects is time and patience. IMHO a 500mm lens is too big to get a clear shot without a tripod unless you have a huge amount of light which does not seem to be the case. I have captured dragons with my cheap but useful Sigma 70-300 Apo macro lens handheld at 300mm on my D200. I have both perched and in flight shots in my gallery. Have a look http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=4973736&size=lg if you have time.

Thanks for the advice, and for posting your red dragonfly. Once again I did not even get close. That is a great shot. Since I took this one, I have added a D200 to my bag, and all but stopped using film. Still my only macro lense is an old manual focus 55mm Nikon, from my F3 days. I probably had either an F100 or an F5 for this one. Gotta keep those better lenses on the shopping list. As for patience, no problem; time however, is harder to come by.