I had a friend text me today asking about the Coyote photo on my website. I took that photo in Yellowstone a couple of years back. He also mentioned the bugs. It got me thinking about spring and warmer weather and again taking photos of insects.

Two summers ago I had a blast taking photos of dragonflies. It seamed that everywhere I went there they were. At first they were a little bashful. They are predators that are quick to move and don’t stay anyplace very long. It seamed that every time I would get close they would move. I developed a technique of moving in close to them with the lens on auto focus and the camera set to rapid fire. I would then start taking photos non stop as I ever slowly moved the lens closer to the dragonfly.

The first photo is the dragonfly as I started to take the photos. The second is when I had moved as close as I possible could get. As long as I was moving slowly towards the bug I was not perceived as a threat. I did not change the settings on the camera or the lens for this shot. The only thing that changed was perspective. Notice how the depth of field gets shallower as you get closer to the subject. When shooting in Macro mode it is extremely important to have your point of interest in sharp focus. The margin for error is literally less than millimeters.

The photo with the black of the eye is the reflection of my lens while the light spot is the reflection of the sun. I shot these photos in full sun. By the time the last photo was shot I was only a few inches from the bug.

This sequence was 15 photos. The two photos above represent the first and the 15th photo. It took all of 3 seconds to shoot. The camera was on continuos shooting mode for the entire sequence.

The Specs:

Iso 320
105mm lens
f/14
1/125 second
Hand held.

I like how the dragonfly looks like it is smiling at me.
I like the huge eyes.
I like the detail on the individual eyes.
I like the look of the nose and mouth.

Thank you for visiting today. Let me know what you think.

~wr~