photoartflightGreat Blue Skimmer Mating
This Great Blue Skimmer stopped by our pond and was hanging around for quite a while. I was able to get quite a few shots of it including a series of panoramas. All of a sudden it was buzzed by another dragonfly and both climbed vertically about 15 ft in the air and started to mate. They then went to the far side of the pond behind some leaves, but was able to get a few shots through the leaves before they flew away. This series was shot with a 400mm lens, extension tube, 1.4X converter, another extension tube and finally another 1.4X teleconverter. I was trying different combinations of extension tubes and teleconverters to see how close I could get for dragonflies that are not cooperative to be close by to photograph. Sort of a photographic Rube Goldberg trial and error setup to see how far you can go to get a closeup shot. I have practiced these setups for years and am pushing the setup now. This image is just cropped from the sides to remove some of the distracting leaves and rocks and was about 12-15 ft away.
Two shot panorama for head to tail sharpness, concentrating on the Thorax, not the wings.
Halli copter!!
Thanks!