At least that’s what iNaturalist ID’d it as. The R5 is opening up some new photo opportunities, but as a newbie to this type of imagery any advice is appreciated.
Canon R5; 100-500 at 500 mm; 1/800 at 7.1; ISO 800
While I am not an expert at photographing, well anything that moves faster than a snail, Allen, IMHO, this is an outstanding shot! Also, since I live in the Nikon world, I am not familiar with the Canon R5, however, the detail you have gotten in the body and wings is amazing. Great job!
A good looking dragonfly! Glad you’re enjoying your new rig. What, do you think, is the reason you feel new opportunities with the camera?
In terms of dragonfly advice, I have a couple of things. Many are creatures of habit and will return to the same perch over and over. Watch and wait. If the wing angle or something is bad one time, it might be good the next. Oh and they like sunny patches, too, and will often sit in one to warm their flying muscles on cool days. They are still when eating, well, except for those jaws! I’ve caught a couple with meals and had time to compose and recompose while they ate.
You’ve done a pretty good job with this one; isolating from the background is key, so well done. The detail is decent and most of the wings and body look to be in line with that lovely new sensor of yours. Only the eyes and tip of the tail are soft. You could probably up the shutter speed and ISO with no problem. I’ve seen how Diane pushes her R5 and still comes up with clean images.
Thanks for the advice, @Kris_Smith . The focusing system is much better on the R5 then the 7DII, 100-500 allows me to get closer than I could with the 150-600, and the glass is much better as well. The detail I can get is really something. I enlarged this to 500% in PS and the wing detail still looked pretty good. Also, as Diane has mentioned, the Canon has in camera focus bracketing, so that should make doing close-up shots more fun. And, of course, something new does tend to energize one to get out and use it.
Wow, Allen, you captured wonderful details in this skimmer. I have the R5 but still use the 150-600 right now. I can’t get out to take many photos with it at the moment, so probably won’t rush for the 100-500 yet, but I appreciate your comments on that. Nice to know. Excellent shot!
This looks great Allen, the background is nice and soft while the subject is very sharp. I have thought about getting the R5 but not there yet. It looks like a great camera from what I have seen others do.
Allen, this is a great catch on this male Widow. I am struck by how bright the view is, so I’m wondering about a slight darkening overall. The sharpness is excellent, with only the tips of the left wings and the tip of the abdome being just a tiny bit soft…something that only someone looking at a very large view would notice. With this lens, you would probably need to go to f/16 to get the entire df sharp in a single shot. Since most dragonflies will sit stably on a perch for short periods of time, you can regularly shoot stacks…all you need then is stacking software (stay away from using photoshop for stacking, it has built in flaws).
