Dragonflies and Damselflies

[HenryL]

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! 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!

 

[Click]

+1

Excellent series

 

[Maximilian]

Love it, Maximilian. Thank you for sharing one of Mother Natures stories!

You're welcome.

+1

Excellent series

Thanks, guys.

 

[AlanF]

Male and female Scarce Chaser, and a male eye all at R5/1000mm.

 

[Maximilian]

... and a male eye ...

Great detail on that eye
I know this from my macro but not from a tele with converter - great

 

[AlanF]

Great detail on that eye
I know this from my macro but not from a tele with converter - great

Thanks Maximilian. By the way, your great series of posts have really got this thread into top gear.

 

[AlanF]

A female Emperor that was flying over 10m away. I was surprised and pleased that the 100-500mm @ 1000mm focussed on it.

 

[Maximilian]

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.



To all of you: please keep posting and answering!



That's a real community.

 

[Click]

A female Emperor that was flying over 10m away. I was surprised and pleased that the 100-500mm @ 1000mm focussed on it.

WOW! Excellent result.

 

[AlanF]

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.

 

[Maximilian]

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.

 

[Maximilian]

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
Data: 1/500, f/11, ISO 1250

 

[Click]

Great shots!

 

[Maximilian]

Great shots!

I added to the post that the second is a closeup crop of the first - so just one "great shot!"

 

[AlanF]

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
Data: 1/500, f/11, ISO 1250

View attachment 198551

View attachment 198552

Wow, it's scary that close up!

 

[AlanF]

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.

 

[Click]

I added to the post that the second is a closeup crop of the first - so just one "great shot!"

Corrected.

 

[Maximilian]

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

 

[koenkooi]

Speaking of close-ups, I have some pictures from 4 years ago:





All from my back yard, it took a few days to stalk the dragonfly that kept visiting to get close enough with the EOS-M+MP-E65+MT24ex. The damselflies are a lot less skittish.

 

[Maximilian]

Speaking of close-ups... with the EOS-M+MP-E65+MT24ex.

Especially the first of the compound eye is fantastic.
No stacking, one shot, I suppose. Correct?
Does the EXIF show the magnification level of the MP-E65?
Thanks for the reply in advance.