I went out to a natural area along the Grand River last Sunday with the hope of running into some club-tail dragonflies. Saw one, but the insect had other plans and did not give me a pose. I did find several freshly emerged calico pennants and was able to snag a few shots of these low flying dragonflies. You have to get low to the ground in order to get some super soft backgrounds. I switched lenses from the 200-400mm to the 200 f4 for this shot. Unfortunately, the lens change introduced lots of dust and some grease onto my freshly cleaned image sensor. Luckily, I was able to reclean the image sensor and remove dots and blotches on the raw file in Lightroom.
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Pertinent technical details or techniques:
D500 200mm f4 micro (1/125 sec. at f165, ISO 250) Levels, Topaz Denoise, Shadows & Highlights, Brightness and Contrast, rubber stamp tool for dust bunnies.
Is this a composite? No
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Getting low on the ground and still close enough for this great image…congrats on you’re hard work. I’m surprised the insects are in the right position when you’re so low, and they don’t fly away. Do you have to stay in your position long and await other insects? Anyway, fantastic detail and the soft background is perfect.
(I also have a D500 but not a macro lens. Had been thinking of the 100mm lens, but this 200mm really works!)
Hi Jim, very nice image. Probably my favorite dragonfly. Sharpness head to tail is quite nice and the background is pleasing. Great job getting down low for this subject. Well done.
