Some recent dragonflies

Had some luck with the dragons and damsels recently:


Southern migrant hawker Aeshna affinis by Neil Phillips, on Flickr




Southern blue damselfly Coenagrion mercuriale close up 3 by Neil Phillips, on Flickr




Golden-ringed Dragonfly Cordulegaster boltonii by Neil Phillips, on Flickr




Emperor dragonfly egg laying portrait by Neil Phillips, on Flickr




scarce emerald damselfly close up by Neil Phillips, on Flickr

C+C welcome as ever

Nice set, like the reflection in four.

Wonderful set, Neil.

The inflight no.1 is superbly executed, so difficult but so good: focus, colour, depicting the creature doing what it does so beautifully in life.

The reflected ovipositing image is great. Who cares about the rule of thirds when the the picture is this good?!

Thanks for letting us see!

Roger.

Excellent set Neil. #3 is my favourite

Well I wouldn't call it LUCK, these are superb photos that I am sure took a great deal of time and skill to capture, maybe you mean you were lucky they were where you were looking.

Thanks folks.

My luck ran out soon after as when I was taking the top image on Thursday my DA*300mm wouldn't let me manual focus beyound 1.7m and then on Fri morning the AF decided to do the same. Taken it to SRS who will send it off Monday.

Regarding the reflection image, I tried cropping it to rule of thirds but seem to work best as it was.

A few more


migrant hawker Aeshna mixta in flight 12 by Neil Phillips, on Flickr



migrant hawker Aeshna mixta in flight 3 by Neil Phillips, on Flickr



southern migrant hawker Aeshna affinis head on by Neil Phillips, on Flickr

These are magnificent images Neil, no luck involved here.

Regards
David

Yes - they are cracking shots Neil - some of your best and I don't recall seeing them elsewhere.
Dave

Superb images Neil.

Stunning stuff and amazing getting those shots in flight. My favourite is still the reflection one. Have you tried a square crop making the most of the symmetry? The "rule of thirds" is at best "a general guideline" and in that image the symmetry makes a good example of when to break the rule emphatically for a shot with great impact. Lovely.

Best wishes, Kris.

Well Neil!
This in-flight set is even better! The images really are superb, the best I've seen here.

Could you give us some details of lens, etc.?

Were they taken with catch-in-focus? ('cause if not, they're miraculous!!!)

Most inspirational set.

Roger.

p.s., agree with Womble, like to see a square crop on the reflection image.

Thanks everyone

The camera info:

Photo 1
Exposure 0.001 sec (1/2000)
Aperture f/5.6
Lens DA*300 mm
ISO Speed 800

Photo 2
Exposure 1/3200 sec
Aperture f/5.6
Lens DA*300 mm
ISO Speed 400
Exposure Bias -1 EV

Photo 3
Exposure 0.001 sec (1/1250)
Aperture f/7.1
Focal Length 100 mm
ISO Speed 400
Exposure Bias -0.3 EV
Lens smc PENTAX-D FA 100mm F2.8 MACRO

All taken with K-5 body on AF-c or AF-S (I can't remember which), manually focusing (the AF would focus past the head often) for fine adjustment and then firing off 5 or 6 shots before it flew off. I use the AF button not the shutter button to AF.

I was lucky in the first oen as it hovered pretty much in one place and did it a few times in nearly the same spot, the 2nd shot I think was on the same day/pond. I pretty much spent every lunch break the sun was out in early September trying to get these.

The 3rd one was in the best week for the southern migrant hawkers - when my DA*300m focus mechanism was being repaired! So I had to try with the 100mm and its quite heavily cropped.