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Approaching Dragon
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| [Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note |
I know its a bit extreme shooting Dragonflys with a Canon, but my Bazooka is in the shop for repair ....ok...ok....I got it out of my system....sorry don't know the type of dragonfly....
Location....location.....location: all my flying dragons were shot at Andree Clark Bird Refuge in Santa Barbara, there are reeds 6-7' tall along the lake, at this one spot there is an opening to get to a small viewing dock with a bench at the edge of the lake. The reeds form a wall on three sides of the dock and I can sit on the bench and have 8-10' of space around me on three sides to shoot. September is the best time of year, you can get some nice warm days with no fog. 9 to 11 am is the best time of day for activity and light.
Species: there are several species of dragons around the lake, this is the only one that will come visit. They will actually HOVER right in front of you, not perfectly still, but with enough shutter speed you can get some very sharp images.
Equipment: I used a Canon 400D & 100/400L IS lens, Aperture Priority, AV 5.6 to 7.1, EC -1/3, any lens in the 300 to 400mm range would work, you might get some shots with a macro lens but have more of a chance with the big lens. No tripod, although a mono pod would be needed for any lens bigger than the one I used. A tripod would be worthless in this location.
The rest of the story: The minimum focal length on my lens is 5.5' which is perfect, most of the time they were 6-7' away, which gave me a wall of reeds 3-4' behind them. I used auto focus as manual focus would be too hard shooting hand held. If I missed the focus on the first try, instead of the lens going to infinity and losing the dragon altogether, it hit the reeds and I could sill see a blurry dragon and usually got it on the second try.....not really as hard as it looks |
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- inked
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(769) - [2008-01-09 8:28]
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nice one ernie!
i really like the colors, and how the dragonfly's colors are coordinated with the background colors. The clarity and sharpness in it's face is excellent too. great capture!
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- pvs
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(13835) - [2008-01-09 8:37]
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Hi Ernie,
A nice inflight,which is not easy as I know,the colors of the BG looking great,tfs
Paul
Hi Ernie
Very diffrenet photo.
congratulate
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- Karin
(2089)
- [2008-01-09 11:36]
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Hi Ernie,
Waouw, a dragonfly in flight. thats unusual.
Interesting information about how you took the photograph, fantastic colors.
great job TFS
Hi.
Exelent shot of dragon fly, i know it is very dificult to shot, especialy when fly.
Great colours, DOF, and contrast.
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