The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
This is my second project showing the remarkable wing dexterity of dragonflies. My little camera was running flat out at 126 fps. These are four sequential shots, meaning that each shot was separated by 0.008 seconds.
A word about Widow Skimmers. Where did the word widow come from, you might ask. Of course, the easy answer is that the black patches on the animal’s wings look like the black crepe worn by women in mourning during the 19th century, And, indeed, the scientific species name, meaning “sorrowful,” supports this point of view.
However, it might be more fun to take the contrarian perspective. In most other dragonfly species, the males stay near females after mating. Not so with Widow Skimmer males. Instead, the male abandons the female after copulation, pursuing other opportunities. In effect, the female becomes a widow.
I’m impressed by the focus and detail at 126 fps. Very nice results!
At 8 thousandths of a second (0.008), the wings cycled less that once in the time it took for 4 images, and to me, this shows synchronized wing movements. Many times when DFs are maneuvering near landing zones, their wings seem to move independent of each other.
The DF headed downward from the URC to the LLC provides a very pleasing composition in my view!
It’s a wonderful series for sure.
Photographically, image #1 and image #3 have the most attractive wing positions for my personal taste.
Thanks for the information on their after mating behavior.
Very good series of this guy in flight, Russ. Your flight series keep getting better. Frame 3 is a great stand-alone image with the wing positions just perfect.
Very well done, and most interesting in the bargain! The colors, detail and composition are so nice, with the OOF detail in the water adding some nice interest. No nits!
These are tough to capture in flight and you did a good job at these captures. With this species, it is very challenging to get much details in the head because they are very dark. I agree that the wing position for image #3 is the most interesting to my eye. Awesome challenge with success…Jim
Russ, these are all excellent! Nicely sharp with interesting changes in the wing positions. In flight action is always a challenge and you’re doing it very well. As a very minor detail, the shutter is only open for 0.0002s, while the frame rate gives the value of 0.0008 that you quote. 126 fps is quite a frame rate!
Thanks to all of you for your comments. Even though photographing dragonflies in flight is hard work, I enjoy it a lot. It reminds me of the decades I spent diving and photographing on coral reefs—beautiful animals and action in all directions.
Russ: Really impressive series with all of the images top notch and #3 especially appealing. Our new technologies certainly allow some unique opportunities and you’ve used them well. Bravo! >=))>
