Emperor dragonfly (f) in flight
When I go out to take pictures of dragonflies in flight, THIS is the picture I have in my mind - something I rarely achieve. This picture has all the attributes I look for; front 3/4 view from slightly above. All four wings visible but with slight motion blur, good focus on the face, background not completely plain. Today I relearned the importance of perseverance when out shooting wildlife. After a couple of hours in the hot sun, I had virtually nothing to show for my efforts. As I was walking back to the car, I decided to have one last go at capturing a good shot and climbed over the low wall atop the dam and went down to the water's edge. I had spotted this beautiful female flying around, and to my delight, after a few minutes, she flew right at me, and for a brief 2 seconds, I managed to lock focus and got 26 shots, several of them usable. I consider today's shoot a success, even though 1,000 of the 1,400 frames went straight in the 'delete' folder. One good picture makes it all worth while!
Emperor dragonfly (f) in flight
When I go out to take pictures of dragonflies in flight, THIS is the picture I have in my mind - something I rarely achieve. This picture has all the attributes I look for; front 3/4 view from slightly above. All four wings visible but with slight motion blur, good focus on the face, background not completely plain. Today I relearned the importance of perseverance when out shooting wildlife. After a couple of hours in the hot sun, I had virtually nothing to show for my efforts. As I was walking back to the car, I decided to have one last go at capturing a good shot and climbed over the low wall atop the dam and went down to the water's edge. I had spotted this beautiful female flying around, and to my delight, after a few minutes, she flew right at me, and for a brief 2 seconds, I managed to lock focus and got 26 shots, several of them usable. I consider today's shoot a success, even though 1,000 of the 1,400 frames went straight in the 'delete' folder. One good picture makes it all worth while!