Trying my hand at dragonflies in flight

[Clovishound]

Went back out to Cypress Gardens this morning to take some more dragonfly pictures. I was using my 200-500 in order to get some distance and had it mounted on my Z8. After taking a number of shots, I decided to try using the prerelease capture feature and try and capture some shots in flight. It worked, but I wasn't able to get any really sharp shots. Not sure if it was motion blur or out of focus. I'm thinking mostly the latter. I was shooting in full sun using 1/4000 sec SS and F11 to stop motion, and give me more DOF respectively. Most were shot around 1 stop underexposed because of the harsh lighting. I think that was a mistake, as most of the insects were underexposed. I think next time I go, I'll try using my 105 macro lens and see if I can get close enough. I might try some higher shutter speeds, and perhaps try and see if I can focus a little behind the dragonfly when it is perched to see if that will match it's position in flight.

Anyway, here are the best of the results. I did remove a little section of the stick it was perched on in a couple where it was distracting.

This one has the wings closest to the camera fairly sharp, while the rest of the insect is soft to blurry. I really like the fact that I was able to get the wasp that scared him off his perch in the shot.

This one also has the set of wings close to the camera relatively sharp.

 

[Clovishound]

Went out today with the CNPA outing. Tried a few different settings, and a different lens. Some things worked and some didn't. I managed to get some in flight shots that were fairly sharp. I probably needed to be a little closer, or a little longer on the focal length, as I had to crop them pretty heavily. I completely blew the backgrounds. I was paying so much attention to getting the bugs sharp, I completely ignored the busy background. I probably could have gotten away with that with the 500mm, but not the 105, even though I was closer to the subject. Ah well, there's always next time.