UK Wildlife Blog

For the last 3 years I have visited Wake valley ponds in Epping forest trying to get photos of downy emeralds and failing miserably. As a species they are hard to find perched, especially in photographic positions and in flight photography becomes the only option. This is further complicated by the fact they inhabit lakes with trees along the margins, where lit areas harder to find, and by the fact that they are metallic in colour, making exposures difficult. So when I saw them at Thursley (along with my first ever brilliant emeralds) I decided against trying to photograph them, until my friend Jerry got a photo of one perched, and one in flight. He showed me where he got the photos but I could not find one perched. So eventually I found a spot where the light was ok and fired off some shots at one flying past:

This was the best one


I was shooting into the sun for the first shot so I managed to find a root to stand on that meant I had the sun to the right of me and watched a male patrolling up and down and hovering occasionally for me to try focus on him. And I was rather chuffed after an hours trying when I got these!




And one with wing movement too.


Now its the only species I have better in flight than perched!