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I did VERY LITTLE cropping... Just to center it a bit more...

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Nikon D40
18-55mm kit lens
55-200mm VR
50mm f1.8
quatary mono/tripod

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Just wanted to bump this definitive dragonfly thread to the front as some new threads were opened on this fascinating topic.
Please participate here to generate the largest photo-collection of dragonflies and damselflies

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

I saw something flickering in front of me so I followed it. Eventually it settled and I saw my first dragonfly this year.



How close can I get?


Click for bigger version on dA.

This one was such a great model I was also taking shots of parts just to see what I could get...





I need to clean the sensor...

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

Whoa! How come you got so close, popo?!
Sprayed some CA glue on the unsuspecting beauty?

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

This one was rather chilled. I moved in slowly getting closer and closer. Eventually I hit the MFD of the macro lens with TC on it, so I then tried to move around for some interesting shots. Didn't get too many of those before it left though.

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

Another damselfly pair today.



Very few dragonflies around today. Ones I saw flew off rapidly. Damselflies were more plentiful.

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

Maybe I was trying too hard here... there were some blue dragonflies down the canal, which were much bigger and noisier than the more common damselflies. They flew up and down the canal, but I never saw one stop once. Dragonfly in flight? They're very erratic in movement and no chance of keeping it on an AF point (short of perhaps a Nikon 51 pointer). In the end I had to resort to desperate measures. Aperture priority f/16, 100mm ISO1600. The shutter speed in this condition fell into a reasonable zone to stop motion. Prefocus to the flight area and point and shoot when then moved near it. Viewfinder was completely useless for this, as you need a wide range of visibility to lock on in the first place. 100mm gave a wide enough FoV to blindly P&S and helps with DoF too. No chance I would get a shot at 400mm!

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

Having gone through all the attempted dragonfly in flight shots, there weren't any really good ones. Oh well.

Did get some damselflies though. Not sure if the red eye one is a different species than the common one or just a variation.






Bonus bug at the back of this one.

_________________
Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

Loads about today...

_________________
Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

This dragonfly was a bit smaller than average. Maybe it was young?





This damselfly let me get quite close... didn't get MFD before it flew away though.

_________________
Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

Great series of post, popo!
Especially love the eyes of your last one.
Was shocked to see that you did get this dof with only f/16

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

Shot on a D300 with the 50mm F1.8D. Wish I had a macro lens with me.

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Nikon D800
Nikon 14-24mm f2.8G, Nikon AF-S 24-70mm f2.8G, Nikon AF-S 70-200mm f2.8G VRII, Tokina 100mm f2.8D Macro and Nikon AF 50mm f1.8D.
Nikon SB-700, Nikon SB-600

Did you crop much, elro?

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

Yes I had to crop a lot. I didn't have a macro lens with me and the 50mm has a minimum focusing distance of around 1.5 feet. At that distance the lens wouldn't auto focus on such a small object so I had to manually focus. The dragonfly let me get pretty close though. The crop is approx 2:1. The cropped image is approx 1600 x 1000 and was scaled down to 800 x 533 for Flickr upload.

Here is a what it looks like uncropped scaled down to 800 x 533.

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Nikon D800
Nikon 14-24mm f2.8G, Nikon AF-S 24-70mm f2.8G, Nikon AF-S 70-200mm f2.8G VRII, Tokina 100mm f2.8D Macro and Nikon AF 50mm f1.8D.
Nikon SB-700, Nikon SB-600

Here are a few Dragonflies. Camera Lumix GH1, Canon 50mm FD lens.

Dragonfly #1


Dragonfly #2


Dragonfly #3