Erythromma najas Large Red-Eye Damselfly Male (Part 2)
e6filmuser
Registered Users Posts: 3,379 Major grins
It was a chilly morning, and the grass was wet, when I noticed a damselfly among the stubs of grass stems cut a few days ago. Some macro photographers find dew-covered insects on cold mornings and find them immobile and this easy to photograph. My personal taste is that I don’t want the insects in my images to be covered with droplets of water. This scenario had a chilled, immobile insect but without a drop of dew on it.
A close look showed it to have a combination of characters I had not seen before the blue markings near the tip of the tail suggested it was a Bluetail but the lack of antehumeral stripes rules this out. The dorsum of the thorax also had a metallic sheen. The yellow intersegmental rings indicated a female.
Finally, the red eyes, together with the above, finally solved the mystery. This is the first time I have found this species in my garden.
With the insect quite immersed in the grass, It was tricky to get a clear view. However, it seems to have been too chilled (no, not that way :rolleyes) to move as I gradually thinned out the grass stems around it.
Having examined the images on my PC, I decide to try to get the damselfly into a slightly more open position. On my return to it I found that it had moved, most obligingly, higher up, on a leaf.
I tried some daylight shots but with limited success. This was to get the true colours. Most images were lit by twin flash.
These images are from the second session. There are two crosseye stereos. With the one from above, I didn’t notice the left middle leg move between shots. For the stereo to work comfortably I have digitally amputated the leg. The other one gives a distinct 3D effect but the damsel looks a little flatter than I would like.
EM-1, Kiron 105mm, f11 or 16, twin RC TTL flash, hand-held but with quite a lot of support from resting my hands on the ground.
Harold
A close look showed it to have a combination of characters I had not seen before the blue markings near the tip of the tail suggested it was a Bluetail but the lack of antehumeral stripes rules this out. The dorsum of the thorax also had a metallic sheen. The yellow intersegmental rings indicated a female.
Finally, the red eyes, together with the above, finally solved the mystery. This is the first time I have found this species in my garden.
With the insect quite immersed in the grass, It was tricky to get a clear view. However, it seems to have been too chilled (no, not that way :rolleyes) to move as I gradually thinned out the grass stems around it.
Having examined the images on my PC, I decide to try to get the damselfly into a slightly more open position. On my return to it I found that it had moved, most obligingly, higher up, on a leaf.
I tried some daylight shots but with limited success. This was to get the true colours. Most images were lit by twin flash.
These images are from the second session. There are two crosseye stereos. With the one from above, I didn’t notice the left middle leg move between shots. For the stereo to work comfortably I have digitally amputated the leg. The other one gives a distinct 3D effect but the damsel looks a little flatter than I would like.
EM-1, Kiron 105mm, f11 or 16, twin RC TTL flash, hand-held but with quite a lot of support from resting my hands on the ground.
Harold
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