Posted on September 10, 2022
Dragonfly season will soon be ending but here are a series of Blue Dasher Dragonfly images from a series of different outings. The Featured Image was taken with a Canon 400mm DO lens on a Canon 1D mkIV, @f/8, 1/400 sec.
Category: 300mm Canon f/4 lens, Blog, Blue Dasher, Blue Dasher Dragonfly, Brigantine NWR, Oceanville NJ, Canon 1.4X Teleconverter, Canon 1D MkIII, Canon 1D MkIV, Canon 7D, canon R, Davidsons Mill Pond Park, Ding Darling NWR, Sanibel FL, Dragonflies, dragonfly, Equipment, Insects, Plainsboro Preserve, yard & pond Tagged: Blue Dasher Dragonfly, canon 1.4x teleconverter series III, Canon 1D MkIV, canon 300mm f/4 IS lens, canon 300mm f/4 lens IS, Canon 400 f/4 DO lens, Canon 400mm DO lens, canon 400mm f/4 DO, Canon 7D, canon R, Canon Series III 1.4X Teleconverter, Dragonflies, dragonfly, Dragonflys
Posted on July 27, 2022
Lately we have quite a few Eastern Amberwing Dragonflies in our yard. It is fun to watch them flying around in our gardens. For this post I am showing a series of Eastern Amberwing males. All images were taken with a Canon 300mm lens with a 1.4x teleconverter on a Canon 7D.
Category: 300mm Canon f/4 lens, Amberwing Male Dragonfly, Blog, Canon 7D, Dragonflies, dragonfly, Equipment, Insects, yard, yard & pond Tagged: Amberwings, canon 1.4x teleconverter series III, canon 300mm f/4 IS lens, canon 300mm f/4 lens, Dragonflies, dragonfly, Eastern Amberwing, Eastern Amberwing Dragonfly, Male Amberwing, Male Eastern Amberwing dragonfly, yard, Yard Photo Subjects
Posted on July 6, 2022
A series of Twelve-Spotted Skimmer Dragonfly images taken with a Canon 400mm DO lens with an Extension Tube added for closer focusing on a Canon 1D mkIV. I was also using a Canon 600EX-RT Flash with a Better Beamer Flash Extender for filling in the shadows & to get more detail on the Dragonfly. All images are full frame, not cropped. I was shooting @ f/8 or f/11 for a smoother clean background.
Category: Better Beamer Flash Extender, Blog, Canon 1D MkIV, Dragonflies, dragonfly, yard & pond Tagged: Better Beamer Flash Extender, canon 1D mk IV, Canon 1D MkIV, Canon 1D mkIV Camera, canon 400mm f/4 DO, Canon 600EX-RT, Canon flash, Dragonflies, dragonfly, Dragonfly closeups, dragonfly photography, Fill Flash Photography, Outdoor Fill Flash Photography, Twelve-Spotted Dragonfly, Twelve-spotted Skimmer, Twelve-Spotted Skimmer Dragonfly
Posted on June 30, 2022
A series of Blue Dasher Dragonfly images taken over a few years. The Featured Image was taken a few years ago and is a 2 image focus blend with a Canon 400mm DO lens on a Canon 7D and a small amount of Fill Flash to brighten the shadows. Subject Dragonfly was 16.7 ft away. When using Teleconverters I usually set my f/stop 2 stops down from wide open for a little more depth of field for sharpness but still have a smoother background. So using my 300mm f/4 lens with a 1.4x teleconverter the lens wide open would be @ f/5.6 because of the teleconverter. So I would set my f/stop @ f/11. If I was using my 400mm f/4 lens with a teleconverter I would probably stop down even more but not always.
Category: Blog, Blue Dasher, Blue Dasher Dragonfly, Canon 1.4X Teleconverter, Canon 7D, Damselfly, Dragonflies, dragonfly, Equipment, Favorite Locations, Focus Stacking, Focus Stacking Images, Image Stacking, Insects, Stacked Images, yard & pond Tagged: Blue Dasher, Blue Dasher Dragonfly, Canon 400 f/4 DO lens, canon 400mm f/4 DO, Dragonflies, dragonfly, Dragonfly closeups, dragonfly photography, Dragonflys, Female Blue Dasher Dragonfly
Posted on June 11, 2022
The Featured Image is a closeup image of a male Blue Dasher Dragonfly resting on a stem. Image taken with a 400mm Canon DO lens with extension tubes to get closer focusing on the small subject Blue Dasher dragonfly but taken from a distance away. I found that using longer lenses with extension tubes for close focusing works well on these skittish dragonflies instead of macro lenses. You have a much longer working distance so your subject dragonfly does not get nervous & fly off giving you more time for shooting a variety of angles & compositions of images. And a bonus of using a 400mm lens or 300mm lens with extension tubes is you get very clean smooth blurred backgrounds. You can also add a 1.4x or 2x teleconverter for more working distance and even smoother backgrounds.
Category: Blog, Blue Dasher, Blue Dasher Dragonfly, Bugs, Canon 1.4X Teleconverter, Canon 1D MkIV, Dragonflies, dragonfly, Equipment, Insects, Tips & Techniques Tagged: 1.4x teleconverter, 2x Teleconverters, Canon 400 f/4 DO lens, canon 400mm f/4 DO, Canon Series III 1.4X Teleconverter, Dragonflies, extension tubes, Photographing Dragonflies
Posted on July 15, 2021
I was going through my backup hard drives cleaning out unneeded files when I found this image of a male Painted Skimmer Dragonfly. This was taken at my pond years ago with a 300mm f/4 lens on a Canon 7D. Image taken @ f/11 to try to get a little more detail in the far wingtips.
Category: Blog, Dragonflies, dragonfly, Equipment, Insects, yard & pond Tagged: canon 300mm f/4 IS lens, Canon 7D, Dragonflies, dragonfly, painted Skimmer dragonfly, Pond
Posted on July 13, 2021
Another series of images of one of my favorite dragonflies, the Blue Dasher Dragonfly. These were taken over quite a few years and lots of locations. Almost all were taken with a Canon 1D mkIV with a 400mm DO lens. Some with 1.4x or 2X Teleconverters for added reach since they were out a ways in a pond or stream.
Category: Blackwater NWR, Cambridge MD, Blog, Brigantine NWR, Oceanville NJ, Davidsons Mill Pond Park, Dragonflies, dragonfly, Equipment, Insects, Nature Still Lifes, Plainsboro Preserve, Stacked Images, yard & pond Tagged: Better Beamer Flash Extender, Canon 1D MkIV, canon 400mm f/4 DO, Canon 400mm f/4 DO lens, Canon extension tubes, Dragonflies, dragonfly, Dragonfly closeups, dragonfly photography
Posted on June 21, 2021
We had gone to the Audubon Plainsboro Preserve to see if we could find a few interesting dragonflies to photograph for the blog. The Preserve was still overloaded with Cicadas but there were quite a few Dragonflies flying around on the paths. It was fun to find this Immature Great Blue Skimmer Dragonfly along the main path. The featured image was taken with a Canon 300mm lens with a 1.4x Teleconverter @ f/6.3 for a smoother background. Below are other views at various f/stops.
Category: Blog, canon R, Dragonflies, dragonfly, Favorite Locations, Immature Dragonfly, Insects, Nature Still Lifes, Plainsboro Preserve Tagged: canon 300mm f/4 IS lens, canon R camera, Canon Series III 1.4X Teleconverter, Dragonflies, dragonfly, dragonfly photography, Great Blue Skimmer Dragonfly, Immature Dragonfly, Immature Great Blue Skimmer, Male Immature Great Blue Skimmer Dragonfly
Posted on June 11, 2021
We went to the Audubon Plainsboro Preserve looking for dragonflies and any other interesting subjects we could find to photograph. We found a male & female Common Whitetail Dragonfly in 2 different locations along our walk. The Featured Image is a Female Common Whitetail Dragonfly 2 shot focus stack @ f/8. I focused first on the head & then focused on the tail. Then blended the 2 images in Photoshop for the final image. By shooting 2 images @ f/8 and combining the 2 images I had the depth of field to get the head & tail in focus and still have a somewhat smoother background I wanted without getting a more cluttered looking background. Usually I would use f/5.6 instead of f/8 but I only wanted to use 2 images in case the dragonfly flew off. All images in this post were taken with a Canon 7D with a 300mm f/4 lens & 1.4X Teleconverter.
Female Common Whitetail Dragonfly, f/ 5.6. Showing smoother uncluttered background but the tail sharpness is softer than the 2 image stacked image.
Female Common Whitetail Dragonfly @ f/11, 300mm, 1.4x teleconverter. Showing even at f/11 the tail sharpness is softer than the 2 image focus stacked image.
Immature Male Common Whitetail Dragonfly, 300mm, 1.4x teleconverter, @ f/8, Canon 7D, showing smoother, uncluttered background.
Immature Male Common Whitetail Dragonfly, 300mm, 1.4x teleconverter, @ f/16, Canon 7D, showing a more cluttered distracting background.
Category: Blog, Davidsons Mill Pond Park, Dragonflies, Favorite Locations, Focus Stacking, Image Stacking Tagged: Audubon Plainsboro Preserve, Canon 7D, Canon Series III 1.4X Teleconverter, common whitetail, common whitetail dragonfly, Common Whitetail Skimmer, Dragonflies, dragonfly photography, Dragonflys, Female Common Whitetail Dragonfly, Plainsboro Preserve
Posted on May 26, 2021
We were walking around Davidsons Mill Pond Park looking for Dragonflies to photograph. We did not see any by the small pond so we went down by the Lake. There the first ones I saw were a pair of Lancet Dragonflies mating. It was not in the usual “Heart” formation” but somewhat close. I was using a 300mm lens @ f/11 with a 1.4X Teleconverter on a Canon 7D. Using f/11 I got enough detail on my subjects but still had a smoother non-cluttered looking background. I also focused on each area of the Dragonflies I was shooting for the panorama instead of stopping down more for a cleaner looking background when the images are blended. The Featured Image is a 2 image Pano to get them both in the image.
Category: Blog, Davidsons Mill Pond Park, Dragonflies, Equipment, Favorite Locations, Insects, Panorama & Stacked Images, Panoramas Tagged: canon 300mm f/4 IS lens, Canon 7D, Canon Series III 1.4X Teleconverter, Dragonflies, Dragonfly Panorama, Dragonfly Panoramas, Dragonfly Wheel formation, Lancet Dragonflies, Mating Dragonflies, panoramas, Using f/11 for softer closeup backgrounds