Neon dragonfly

Dalantech

I've been shooting Violet Darters at Lago d'Averno ( http://maps.smugmug.com/?feedType=geoUser&Data=dalantech&Latitude=40.8365737643&Longitude=14.0796661377&zoom=6 ) for most of this summer. The problem is that they, like all the other dragons at the lake, like to perch on the bike path -and I hate shooting them on the ground. Yesterday there was a lot of wind, but I found this guy feeding from a perch and he didn't want to get out of the chow line so he let me get close. Eventually I took images that were life size with my Canon 100mm macro -working distance to target: 5.9"...

Shot in RAW and converted as shot to jpg with minimal post processing. The only cropping tool that I use is the viewfinder...







I switched sides but there is a temple to Apollo next to the lake and the white concrete kinda washed out the background...



...so I shifted my position a little to get the temple out of the background.



These next two shots are life size images.





Here is a crop showing the detail in the eye of the previous photo:



C&C always welcome :

Harryb

System

That's amazing. Very cool pics.

Charla

Amazing shots, love the colors.

The twigs in the 5th image look like thumbs up . Are you trying to send us a subliminal message???

Charla

Dalantech

Harryb wrote:

Glad you liked them Harry

Dalantech

truth wrote:

That's amazing. Very cool pics.

Thanks! :

I've found that if they are feeding I can get close enough to count the hairs on their chin

Dalantech

Charla wrote:

Amazing shots, love the colors.

The twigs in the 5th image look like thumbs up . Are you trying to send us a subliminal message???

Charla

"These are not the droids you're looking for"

Thanks for the props :

Seefutlung

Just great stuff ... you probably ran out of super glue on all those amazing shots (joking).

Dalantech

Seefutlung wrote:

Just great stuff ... you probably ran out of super glue on all those amazing shots (joking).

-you'd think that, but I've been shooting and studying these guys all spring / summer. I know which ones to try to get close to, and which ones to ignore cause they'll never let me get close...

Ric Grupe

As hard as little birds....sometimes harder!

Nice captures.

I find it helpful to sharpen the webbed wings separately. I use Nik Sharpener Pro where you can select just a certain color to sharpen. You can also apply a color mask for that color and then sharpen normally. Depending on the shot this can sometimes really emphasize the wings.

Awais Yaqub

: You did it again

Dick on Aruba

Nice work, well done.

Thanks for sharing.

Dick.

Dalantech

Ric Grupe wrote:

As hard as little birds....sometimes harder!

Nice captures.

I find it helpful to sharpen the webbed wings separately. I use Nik Sharpener Pro where you can select just a certain color to sharpen. You can also apply a color mask for that color and then sharpen normally. Depending on the shot this can sometimes really emphasize the wings.

I actually like the way the wings fall out of the area of sharp focus. Getting huge amounts of depth of field is highly over rated, especially when shooting close up photography or macro. Also I think that most peeps over sharpen their images to the point where they just look "pixelated". Thanks for the tips but, IMHO, if post processing takes me more than 2 minutes then I've done something wrong with the camera...

Dalantech

Awais Yaqub wrote:

: You did it again

Thanks Awais! :

Dalantech

Dick on Aruba wrote:

Nice work, well done.

Thanks for sharing.

Dick.

Thanks! :

Maestro

Wonderful series! I wish I had more dragonflies around my house. I love the color.

Dalantech

Maestro wrote:

Wonderful series! I wish I had more dragonflies around my house. I love the color.

Thanks! :