Last summer's dragonflies

mtully

After lurking in this forum for months and enjoying the outstanding work of the many contributors I decided I should also contribute.

I realize my shots aren't really macro, but they don't really fit into the wildlife forum description.

All are shot handheld in natural light with a Nikon D40 and ancient micro Nikkor 105mm f4 or micro Nikkor 55mm f3.5.

I hope to try working with a flash next season to increase DOF, but I do like the look of the natural light.

Blue Dasher



Blue Dasher



another Blue Dasher



Ruddy Darter



Eastern Pondhawk



12 Spotted Skimmer



Black-Shouldered Spinyleg



Ruddy Darter



Swamp Darner



Blue Dasher



Ruddy Darter



Common Green Darner



C & C appreciated

Mike

GOLDENORFE

WELCOME

very good series of dragons, love the 12 spot skimmer

the full dragon shots are a bit too tightly framed,try to leave a bit more room infront of the insect in the direction they are looking.
phil

paddler4

Some wonderful images. I particularly like the last. Sure look macro to me, BTW. Thanks for posting.

mtully

Thanks for the feedback guys. I see what you mean Phil. The big guys look like they were treated as shapes in a frame rather than creatures in their environment. The little dashers, darters and skimmers are able to balance themselves on tops of things in nice poses, but the darners with their long bodies are only able to hang like pendants. I'll have to work on a different approach. Too bad my next opportunity is many months away.

Mike

Woogiekids

Those are great! I love dragonflies.

Lord Vetinari

Wonderful series of dragon shots. Especially like #4 !
Brian V.

teamracephotos

Great Light!
mtully
I could not pick a favorite, loved them all. I'd say stay with the natural light. To me it looks like you reached out, grab the light and placed it where you wanted to. Was there much post processing? Thanks for sharing, I'd like to see more! Mark

mtully

teamracephotos wrote:

Was there much post processing? Mark

Thanks for the compliment Mark. I'm fairly new to digital photography and didn't do much with post processing before last summer. My old macro lenses don't talk to the camera body, so there is no through-the-lens metering. My exposure guesses were somewhat erratic, so I was advised to shoot in RAW format to allow more exposure latitude. Shooting in RAW was a huge step forward for me. The post processing on these consists of fiddling with the exposure, contrast, color temp and adding some color saturation to combat the drabness of shooting in direct sunlight. The last step was to clone out the sensor dust, which I now realize I didn't do completely on these.

Please visit my gallery at www.miketully.smugmug.com to see more.

shadeofhisheart

fantastic! i have thought about getting a nikon D40..i think perhaps you have made up my mind. great work ^-^