Posted on August 5, 2022
A series of Great Blue Skimmer Dragonfly images taken with a Canon 300mm lens on a Canon R. Most images shot with a 1.4x Teleconverter @ f/5.6 or f/6.3 to get smoother looking backgrounds. On the image of the Male Great Blue Skimmer I wanted more detail on all the wing damage so I stopped down to f/16 and used a 2X Teleconverter.
Category: 300mm Canon f/4 lens, Blog, Canon 1.4X Teleconverter, canon R, Dragonflies, dragonfly, Equipment, Insects Tagged: canon 1.4x teleconverter series III, Canon 2X teleconverter, canon 300mm f/4 IS lens, canon R camera, Female Great Blue Dragonfly, Female Great Blue Skimmer Dragonfly, Great Blue Dragonfly, Great Blue Male Dragonfly, Great Blue Skimmer Dragonfly, Male Great Blue Dragonfly
Posted on June 28, 2020
I was photographing dragonflies at a local park when I noticed this female Great Blue Skimmer dragonfly off to the side. I quickly switched from the usual dragonfly subjects and got a few images of this one before it flew off. I was using a 400mm lens with an extension tube to be able to focus closer for Dragonflies. All images were taken @ f/11 giving a little more depth of field yet still have smoother cleaner backgrounds.
Posted on July 29, 2019
I have not photographed as many Dragonflies this year as I have in other years. Maybe because I have been working on a few personal projects. I found these female Great Blue Skimmers at Plainsboro Preserve which is a Preserve and Nature Center along with an Audubon Center. It is about 1,000 acres, with a 50 acre lake and miles of nature trails. So it is a fun place to wander around and look for photo subjects, especially Dragonflies! On this day we mostly saw Great Blue Skimmers. Lately I use a 300mm f/4 Canon lens with a 1.4X Teleconverter for photographing Dragonflies. It allows me to get close images and seems to work well @ f/11 for getting detail, but still have a somewhat soft background. Sometimes I will go to f/8 for the series if the background is busier and shoot a series with more focus points. I then blend the images in Photoshop, to keep a softer background for my Dragonfly images but still get more of the dragonfly in focus.
Head-On View, 300mm w/ 1.4X Teleconverter
Female Great Blue Skimmer Dragonfly – 3/4 view from behind
Female Great Blue Skimmer Dragonfly – Side view, Single image
Category: Blog, Dragonflies, Favorite Locations, Insects, Plainsboro Preserve, Tips & Techniques, Uncategorized Tagged: Audubon Plainsboro Preserve, canon 300mm f/4 IS lens, canon R, Canon Series III 1.4X Teleconverter, Dragonflys, Female Great Blue Skimmer Dragonfly, Great Blue Skimmer Dragonfly, Plainsboro Preserve