Dragonflies in Flight
This past January, Crumby the Ovate decided he needed to go in to the hospital for neck surgery because his shoulder hurt so bad. Also his neck hurt and his arm was experiencing unnatural sensations. Well. Maybe those sensations are natural, but they are not normal.
First thing after Crumby woke up in the hospital he noticed his right arm didn't work. Turns out, he was suddenly afflicted with the C5 palsy, rendering Crumby a helpless cripple. Gradually the arm has gotten better. But it's still not back to its old self. Not by a long shot. Plus his neck still hurts, just in a different place. However, in fairness to Americano bullshit medical care, the shoulder doesn't hurt near as much as it did.
All of which explains why Crumby hasn't posted any lately, maybe. But today Crumby wishes to discuss dragonflies. Crumby likes to document dragonfly occurrence at his favorite aquatic areas with photographs. Yet lots of times dragonflies won't hold still to have their pictures taken. Instead they fly along at supersonic speed seemingly for hours, never once alighting. So Crumby decided he needed to start taking pictures of dragonflies in flight (dif) if he was going to ever document the ones that never sit still.
Crumby only has one camera and lens combo with much capacity for dif and it's not very good. No. Yet an old Canon 60d plus 55-250 lens is the best equipment Crumby has for dif .
The methodology Crumby employs for dif is to prefocus on a leaf or something on the water near where a dragonfly is flying around, then try to track the dragonfly and take its picture as it clarifies in the viewfinder. This methodology can be tedious and labor intensive, but is better than standing around all day waiting for a dragonfly to land.
Here are some examples that are not great pictures, but the specimens are identifiable to species. Cyrano darner, prince baskettail and pale-faced clubskimmer
It was around March of 2017 when Crumby, if he remembers correctly, began a serious effort to document dragonflies outside the CB. At first he employed a Nikon P900 for this effort. But that particular camera model is heavy, the closest focus is too far out and the maximum magnification at closest focus isn't great either. So Crumby switched to a Nikon B700 for his main dragonfly documentation camera. It is light with a long focal length, fair closest focus distance and pretty good maximum magnification at closest focus.
Yet dragonflies in flight are very hard with that camera; mostly because the dragonflies are very, very, very difficult to track with the electronic viewfinder in that particular model. Plus, the closest focus is a little too long for damselflies below the size of Lestes.
Nevertheless, here are two of my best shots of airborne dragonflies with the B700. These are out of maybe a tousand or maybe two tousand tries. These are springtime darner and dot-winged baskettail. The latter is fairly easy to find sitting around and also hoovers a lot; hoovering dragonflies are way easier to photograph than flying ones. I can't remember if this one was hoovering.
First thing after Crumby woke up in the hospital he noticed his right arm didn't work. Turns out, he was suddenly afflicted with the C5 palsy, rendering Crumby a helpless cripple. Gradually the arm has gotten better. But it's still not back to its old self. Not by a long shot. Plus his neck still hurts, just in a different place. However, in fairness to Americano bullshit medical care, the shoulder doesn't hurt near as much as it did.
All of which explains why Crumby hasn't posted any lately, maybe. But today Crumby wishes to discuss dragonflies. Crumby likes to document dragonfly occurrence at his favorite aquatic areas with photographs. Yet lots of times dragonflies won't hold still to have their pictures taken. Instead they fly along at supersonic speed seemingly for hours, never once alighting. So Crumby decided he needed to start taking pictures of dragonflies in flight (dif) if he was going to ever document the ones that never sit still.
Crumby only has one camera and lens combo with much capacity for dif and it's not very good. No. Yet an old Canon 60d plus 55-250 lens is the best equipment Crumby has for dif .
The methodology Crumby employs for dif is to prefocus on a leaf or something on the water near where a dragonfly is flying around, then try to track the dragonfly and take its picture as it clarifies in the viewfinder. This methodology can be tedious and labor intensive, but is better than standing around all day waiting for a dragonfly to land.
Here are some examples that are not great pictures, but the specimens are identifiable to species. Cyrano darner, prince baskettail and pale-faced clubskimmer
It was around March of 2017 when Crumby, if he remembers correctly, began a serious effort to document dragonflies outside the CB. At first he employed a Nikon P900 for this effort. But that particular camera model is heavy, the closest focus is too far out and the maximum magnification at closest focus isn't great either. So Crumby switched to a Nikon B700 for his main dragonfly documentation camera. It is light with a long focal length, fair closest focus distance and pretty good maximum magnification at closest focus.
Yet dragonflies in flight are very hard with that camera; mostly because the dragonflies are very, very, very difficult to track with the electronic viewfinder in that particular model. Plus, the closest focus is a little too long for damselflies below the size of Lestes.
Nevertheless, here are two of my best shots of airborne dragonflies with the B700. These are out of maybe a tousand or maybe two tousand tries. These are springtime darner and dot-winged baskettail. The latter is fairly easy to find sitting around and also hoovers a lot; hoovering dragonflies are way easier to photograph than flying ones. I can't remember if this one was hoovering.
posted by ray pistrum at Saturday, May 26, 2018
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