Dragonflies and Damselflies

[Maximilian]

Row, row, row your boat gently down the stream...
Red-eyed damselflies (erythromma najas) seem to like children's songs, too.

 

[Maximilian]

And one of my most beloved perspective of sitting dragonflies or damselflies: hide and seek!
TBH it works better with damselflies than with four-spotted chasers
Interesting that that even in parking position the first pair of legs is behind the head here.

 

[Click]

Row, row, row your boat gently down the stream...

Very nice shots. I really like your last picture.

 

[Nemorino]

Eurasian Bluet ( Coenagrion)
R5 and Sigma 150mm Macro with a 1.4TC @ 1/3200, f/8, ISO1600

 

[Click]

Nice shot, Nemorino.

 

[Maximilian]

Still no luck on anax DIFs. But these two I could get resting. Note the wings, how they can get damaged during air combat.

 

[Maximilian]

And this four-spotted chaser is close to MFD of the 100 -400L II @ f/10, almost no cropping.
So just a really little area of focus. That one was from further away, cropped, a little bit less detail, but overall better, not only because of the highlights.

 

[Click]

Very nice pictures, Maximilian. I especially like the fist one. Well done.

 

[AlanF]

The Four-Spotted Chasers have been around for a while now, and it's beginning to show on their wings as @Maximilian has noted. I don't know whether they have been nibbled by the local Emperor Dragonflies or just escaped the birds.

 

[AlanF]

My first Common Darter of the season.

 

[AlanF]

The previous were all at 500mm on the R5. Here is a Black-tailed Skimmer taken at 500mm and then with the 2xTC at 1000mm.

 

[Click]

Beautiful series, Alan.

 

[koenkooi]

After a week of rain I finally managed to get out again and find some dragonflies. I think this is the first time with the 100-500 that I can see the facets in both eyes:


Click to get higher res options at flickr.

 

[koenkooi]

And the damselfly that took up residence in my garden was approachable enough so I could test the RF100mm f/2.8:



This is a heavy crop, the body was too much out of focus to be included

 

[koenkooi]

And here I forgot to move the focus point, so the magnified view was in the middle. It's hard to get close enough with the MP-E65mm and flash heads, so when I do get close I should really pay better attention to composition:

 

[Maximilian]

After a week of rain I finally managed to get out again ...

So true. What an awful weather. And all my thoughts are with the victims of the floodings here in Germany.

I had the chance to get some distraction on Sunday and came across this very cooperative anax.
All three pics without any cropping, only compressing for this page, close to MFD of the 100-400 II + 1.4x.
The first was @560mm, for the others I had to zoom out @350mm to get the framing.

 

[Click]

I really like the first picture. Great shot, Maximilian.

 

[Maximilian]

Young female darter.

 

[Click]

Very nice!

Well done, Maximilian.

 

[AlanF]

Another Common Darter, similarly backlit.