Dragonflies and Damselflies

I promised you a story and here it is. Sorry for the delay but it took me some time to decide for the right pics and pp them.
I'd call the story:

The quarrel over the spooky honeymoon suite
  1. Pic: A four-spot was residing well at a good perch.
  2. Pic: When it went for hunting a couple of red-eyed damselflies (erythromma najas) decided to make it their honeymoon suite.
    But they had another guest: a white exuvia! :eek: how spooky, isn't it? ;)
  3. Pic: When four-spot came back it was really angry.
  4. Pic: First it was wheeling over the honeymoon suite.
  5. Pic: Then it decided to land - threatening the red-eyes.
  6. Pic: But in the end they decided, that the honeymoon suite was overcrowded and left.
    And four-spot was alone again with its exuvia "friend".
Enjoy ;)

1
1 View attachment 198515 2 View attachment 198516 3 View attachment 198517

4 View attachment 198518 5 View attachment 198519 6 View attachment 198520
Love it, Maximilian. Thank you for sharing one of Mother Natures stories!
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 users
Upvote 0
+1

Excellent series
d055.gif
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Upvote 0
By the way, your great series of posts have really got this thread into top gear.
Thank you very much, Alan.
I really would like to give back this compliment to you, Alan, and all others here, doing a great job, living and loving this hobby and topic and sharing all your pics, experiences and advices to all willing to follow and read.

:love:

To all of you: please keep posting and answering!

:love:

That's a real community.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 users
Upvote 0
My first decent DIF shots of a beautiful demoiselle. They are so damn erratic and fast in flight.
Both 1/1250, f/8, ISO 3200 and +2/3 push in pp

View attachment 198436

View attachment 198438
Here's one for you. I used a higher shutter speed of 1/3200 and similar iso to yours. The light wasn't good, overcast and no sun, but it must have been even worse for you.

309A8771-DxO_banded_demoiselle_flying-lssm.jpg
 
  • Like
Reactions: 6 users
Upvote 0
Here's one for you. I used a higher shutter speed of 1/3200 and similar iso to yours. The light wasn't good, overcast and no sun, but it must have been even worse for you.
I had bright sun and almost the best conditions I could imagine. You can see it at the highlights of the leaves.
I tried all kinds of metering including spot. But still I had those high ISO and the damoiselle still too dark. I suppose because of the dark bg.
But the sharpness and detail was okay for me. Maybe next time I can do better.
 
Upvote 0
Here's my first sitting green-eyed hawker of this year.
It was so cooperative that I could get to MFD of my 100-400LII + 1.4xTC.
Still I could do some 15% cropping what would lead to about 0.5 mag.
The second pic is a closeup crop of the first and shows more detail, still not 1:1. But I would say great tools :cool:
Data: 1/500, f/11, ISO 1250

green_eyed_hawker_07.JPG

green_eyed_hawker_07_detail.JPG
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: 5 users
Upvote 0
Here's my first sitting green-eyed hawker of this year.
It was so cooperative that I could get to MFD of my 100-400LII + 1.4xTC.
Still I could do some 15% cropping what would lead to about 0.5 mag.
The second pic is a closeup crop of the first and shows more detail, still not 1:1. But I would say great tools :cool:
Data: 1/500, f/11, ISO 1250

View attachment 198551

View attachment 198552
Wow, it's scary that close up!
 
Upvote 0
A Black-tailed Skimmer ovipositing. This is a case where a gif shows what happens. She hovers above the surface, then quickly dips in her rear end and deposits eggs. A burst with electronic shutter of about half a second, slowed down.

Blacktailed_skimmer_ovipositing_small.gif
 
  • Like
Reactions: 4 users
Upvote 0
Wow, it's scary that close up!
I must admit that I am just fascinated but not scared.
I also see some kind of beauty or perfection there that we mammals find too strange at first.
And I really prefer to live today instead of that time 300 mio years ago when the meganeura lived.
Just imagine that dragonfly not 7 cm small but 10 times that large. That would be scary - really :eek:
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0