DIF Blue

[PeterBirder]

Following my recent modest success at photographing Terns in flight I decided to chance my luck with a Dragonfly in flight.

Here are four frames from a sequence of six taken at 10fps of a rather tatty male Emperor.

1/


2/


3/


4/


This exercise confirmed what I already thought, which is that my main problem with photographing subjects like this is my own physical and mental capabilities at both finding and tracking the subject in the viewfinder.I determined that one thing that would help would be the ability to look through the viewfinder with one eye whilst keeping the other eye open to find and keep track of the subject when it moves out of the field of view of the camera. I know many people who are able to do this with high magnification scopes but my remaining "little grey cells" simply refuse to process two versions of the same image at different magnifications.

After the dragonfly I moved on to another blue subject which is more in my comfort zone.

A beautiful Common Blue butterfly feeding on Birdsfoot Trefoil.


Thanks for looking.

[Bluegrass Jim]

Re: DIF Blue

Hello Peter,
Your Dragonfly shots are good, I find them hard to track at the best of times so you've done well to get these in the centre of the frame. I'm amazed that it can still fly given the amount of wing area that's missing. The Common Blue photo is lovely, I haven't seen any of the blue ones this year. Thanks for posting.
Regards Jim.

[PeterBirder]

Re: DIF Blue

Hello Peter,
Your Dragonfly shots are good, I find them hard to track at the best of times so you've done well to get these in the centre of the frame. I'm amazed that it can still fly given the amount of wing area that's missing. The Common Blue photo is lovely, I haven't seen any of the blue ones this year. Thanks for posting.
Regards Jim.

Many thanks Jim.

Regards.

[ringneck]

Re: DIF Blue

Great fun trying to get these in flight Dragons ain't it........O.K. maybe fun was the wrong word.....good efforts.
I cannot use the 2 eyes method either.......its a no no as they can turn instantly and you loose them with both eyes.
Got some pin sharp ones (Canon 7D and 400mm) but it was hovering away ...he he...not the most interesting angle.

I too have not had many blues this year....you have some great wing detail there.

Keith

[PeterBirder]

Re: DIF Blue

Thanks Keith.

Yes "fun" is not the right word, more like frustrating.

We've got loads of blues at the moment plus Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper, Peacock and a Clouded Yellow has been reported. Also Six Spot Burnet and Cinabar moths.

Regards.

[Chevvyf1]

Re: DIF Blue

Peter GREAT IMAGES was this the M5 ? and ? lens ?

I too find it darned hard work getting fast, tiny creatures - but phenomenal reward when you do

thanks for sharing

[PeterBirder]

Re: DIF Blue

Thanks Chevvy.

Yes this was taken with the E-M5 and processed from raw using DxO Optics Pro.

75-300mm lens @ 156mm
f 7.1
Shutter priority 1/1000 sec.

Regards.

[Chevvyf1]

Re: DIF Blue

Peter thanks for this I rather suspected 75-300 and thats what I plan to use

[PeterBirder]

Re: DIF Blue

"Peter thanks for this I rather suspected 75-300 and thats what I plan to use" Chevvyf1.


I got lucky again today and caught a female Emperor in flight.

Not as sharp as the last ones but a better specimen.


Good luck with yours.