A Blue Dasher Dragonfly Day -

Went out to the lake at lunch to get away for a few and hopefully catch a shot or two. Happened upon two Blue Dasher dragonflies that were more than willing to entertain me for a few minutes. Managed to catch a few decent shots, both with and without onboard flash.

Very Nice,

Just a tip which may help. Try and reduce the flash power so that you are still getting some colour in the background but have enough fill light to fill in the shadows and bring out the details. It will also reduce the over exposed highlights that you get in the eyes.

Scott Murray said:

Very Nice,

Just a tip which may help. Try and reduce the flash power so that you are still getting some colour in the background but have enough fill light to fill in the shadows and bring out the details. It will also reduce the over exposed highlights that you get in the eyes.

Click to expand...

Right. I much prefer the first set without the flash. The dark background is not very pleasing. To me anyway. Although it's a well executed series of shots none the less..

Scott Murray said:

Very Nice,

Just a tip which may help. Try and reduce the flash power so that you are still getting some colour in the background but have enough fill light to fill in the shadows and bring out the details. It will also reduce the over exposed highlights that you get in the eyes.

Click to expand...

Blacktop said:

Right. I much prefer the first set without the flash. The dark background is not very pleasing. To me anyway. Although it's a well executed series of shots none the less..

Click to expand...

Ok, thanks guys. I appreciate the feedback. I was having a hard time with the ones that are dark. He was sitting in the shadows and on the edge of a treeline that didn't have much light coming though. I had the onboard flash set at 1/8 first but was really not getting enough fill for bringing out any details. I'd have rather tried my off camera flash & diffuser for sure. Would have worked better on the one where he was down at eye level, but the ones from underneath I was literally holding the camera about 2' up above my head trying to still see him through the viewfinder when I could.

I really wanted to use one for the "Up in the air" challenge, but missed it with the new time deadline.

I'll have to try again today at lunch if I can find more to get close to.

Anytime, I am still using my diffuser that is on the end of the lens. Seems to be working great for me have you tried something similar? makes it easier and less stuffing around with off camera flashes etc.

Very nicely done on the first two, as everyone has said.
I DO like the extreme closeups with the dark background though, as it really shows some great detail, and are def true "macro" captures.

Beautiful photos