Skip navigation.

Everything is Permuted

Tales of a South Downs fox... and other ramblings

Posts tagged with "dragonfly"

Dragonfly Special

I've been hinting at this entry several times recently, but have always found a reason to post about something else. Today they finally make it to the blog, and if I'm honest today's shots are an improvement on previous efforts. Plus I took shots of almost nothing else. It was overcast this morning and the swallows and martins weren't on their sunny perch. By lunchtime a dull day had transformed into a summer blazer. Hot, muggy, still. Perfect for sitting by the pond and seeing what would appear.

The broad-bodied chasers from earlier in the year have largely moved away. The emperors are still around, but in small number. Right now the dominant species of dragonfly is the common darter. They're still emerging, and are actively breeding.

I'll start with a 'standard' shot of a darter perched alongside the edge of the pond. They tend to keep returning to the same spot, so once you've worked out where they like to rest it's simply a matter of waiting until one settles.

dragonfly

In between resting, they were busy mating. These were slightly trickier to get. I was still using manual focusing but instead of adjusting the focus I just rocked back and forth until they were nice and sharp in the viewfinder. It's not a technique that has a hugely high hit rate (my recycle bin is full to bursting), but it is a lot more successful than trying to autofocus a small moving object through the plants

dragonfly

dragonfly

I hardly need say that I have rather a lot of shots very similar to the ones above. Most of them are variations of the perched image. There was one brief sequence though when instead of landing parallel to the camera, a darter flew directly in from behind the stick and stared down the lens, looking for all the world like a motorcyclist, complete with crash helmet. You can also see one of the easier identification features in these shots: the yellow stripe on the outside of the dragonfly's legs

dragonfly

dragonfly

dragonfly

dragonfly
Nature Blog Network
Camera note: all shots were manually focused using the Sigma 105mm F2.8 EX DG macro lens with the Kenko Teleplus 1.4x Pro 300 DG teleconverter attached (which gave me a little more working distance).

Pretty Things

, , ,

After the past couple of posts, a return to slightly more pleasing images of local wildlife. The heat has restricted me to an extent; that, plus work has prevented too many long excursions into the countryside so today's were all taken close my office (which resembled an oven).

First are a couple of shots of an emperor dragonfly. She was behaving perfectly for once, and happily posed in an ornamental pond.




And when I was leaving this evening, one of the juvenile pied wagtails was patiently picking blackfly while waiting for the adult to bring more exotic food. It's still young enough not to be startled by the camera.






I was going to leave it at that, but I've persisted with taking 'doubles' to try to get a decent 3D image, and this one of a foxglove works quite well. I need to work a bit more on composition, but - if you can be bothered - enlarge the image and make yourself focus in front of the image (cross eyed). Holding a pin a few inches in front of your nose can help. This one stays quite stable once you can lock into it.

3d imageCick to enlarge
Nature Blog Network
Camera note: all shots taken with the EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens, except the foxglove which was taken with the Sigma 105mm F2.8 EX DG macro lens.

Some small creatures

, , ,

Just a few from today...
Early morning, rabbit

A squirrel outside my office

An emperor dragonfly, at lunchtime

The emperor from another angle

And from the early hours of Wednesday morning... a hedgehog
Nature Blog Network
Camera note: all shots taken with the EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens, except the hedgehog which was captured with the Sigma 105mm F2.8 EX DG macro lens.

Emperors, Damsels and Babies

, , , ...

In my previous post I mentioned that I'd seen an emperor dragonfly. Today I saw four or five around the pond, which constitutes a mini population explosion. As ever, flight shots of these will take time, but they did settle on the vegetation at the edge of the pond which gave me some reasonable opportunities for photos.

Emperor dragonfly (male)



There were various damselflies out as well, including common blues and blue-tailed varieties. This is a female common blue.
Female common blue damselfly

Blue-tailed damselfly

Those were at lunchtime. In the morning, before work, I came across a small clutch of young squirrels out enjoying the early sunshine. They were moderately bold, though if I got too close quickly ran up into the trees.
Young grey squirrel

The other babies were the herring gull chicks (of course). Just one photo of them tonight.


And not forgetting the baby fox :wink:
Nature Blog Network
Camera note: the dragonflies were all photographed with the Sigma 105mm F2.8 EX DG macro lens. The chicks and squirrel were caught with the EF 400mm f/5.6L USM lens.

Conversation Pieces

,

"I can't see her either"

"Boys, boys... they'll never find me here" :wink:

"Come on then, I'll race you to the bottom"

"Woah! Where did that come from!"
Nature Blog Network
Camera note: all shots taken with the EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens.
Download Opera, the fastest and most secure browser