photoartflightFemale Seaside Dragonlet
Posted on July 13, 2020
A couple of images from a trip to Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge in Maryland. Some of the dragonflies already seem to showing a lot of wear already. Missing wing parts and just looking a little worn. It is amazing that some with almost no wing on one side can still somewhat fly. This is a Female Seaside Dragonlet and has a bent and damaged Segmented Abdomen.It amazes me the males and female dragonflies are so different in coloring & markings. Which also makes it difficult to ID sometimes. Then throw in immatures and it get more confusing! All images taken with a Canon 300mm lens with a 1/4X teleconverter on a Canon 7D.
Seaside Dragonlet – Male
Needham’s Skimmer Dragonflies From Blackwater NWR
Posted on July 13, 2020
Needham Skimmer Dragonfly images from a previous trip to the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, outside Cambridge, Maryland. The featured image is a Needham Skimmer Dragonfly made from 3 images, focused at 3 different focus areas on the dragonfly and blended in Photoshop. I focused on near wingtip, body, then far wingtip. Even at f/14 with a 300mm lens I only needed 3 focus areas to get a sharp dragonfly from wingtip to wingtip and still have a smoother background. If I stopped down more I would get a more distracting backgrounds, so focus stacking helps the dragonfly stand out more.
Ospreys In The Fog At Brigantine
Posted on July 9, 2020
These images were taken from a previous photo trip to the Brigantine Division of the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in Oceanville, NJ. We stayed overnight to get an early start the next morning, but we woke up to a very foggy morning. We carefully drove from the motel to the Refuge anyway thinking maybe it would burn off at sunrise. But the fog stayed for a while and I kind of liked the eerie foggy look of the Refuge in the fog. Adding contrast and opening up the shadows helped with the very flat light with the flying Ospreys against the foggy white background sky. It sort of turned them into a high key white background. It was sort of interesting to be the only ones there in such a large foggy area. All images shot with a Canon 400mm Canon DO lens, some with a 1.4x teleconverter with a Canon 7D to get closer for flight images.
Cucumber Beetles
Posted on July 2, 2020
Sometimes it is fun to go out in the yard or fields to see what subjects you can find close at home. I look to see if there are any interesting bugs to photograph. Usually I look for dragonflies, but any insects will do. Here are a series of Cucumber Beetles. I was using a Sigma 150mm macro lens with a 1.4x teleconverter on a Canon 7D. I also used a flash with diffusion to add some fill light to lighten the shadow areas to give a more even light on the images.
Female Common Whitetail Dragonfly
Posted on June 30, 2020
A few images of a female Common Whitetail Dragonfly taken along a walk at the Audubon Plainsboro Preserve in NJ. I was using a Canon 300mm f/4 lens on a Canon 7D, mainly because it was lighter to carry for a long walk. The background is a little busy with the sandy & pebble path. But it cooperated by not flying off!
Odd Bug Under A Leaf
Posted on June 25, 2020
I was going through old backup drives cleaning out images to make more room and came across this odd bug image from years ago. Do not know what it is, but it is definitely different looking. Images taken with a Sigma 150mm macro with a Canon 1.4X teleconverter on a Canon 7D. I was also using some fill light in the shadows with a flash dialed down and more diffusion added to the flash head to just give a little more light on the subject as it was under the leaf.
Moving Wings – Female Eastern Forktail Damselfly
Posted on June 17, 2020
I noticed this Damselfly on the tip of a leaf that was hanging over the water’s edge. I believe it is a Female Eastern Forktail Damselfly. I was using a 150mm Sigma macro on a Canon 7D. So I could not get closer, but thought it was still interesting because of the moving wings. I was surprised the wings had that much motion blur because I was shooting @ 1/250 @ f/4 for a smoother background.
Immature Black-Crowned Night Heron
Posted on May 16, 2020
I found this Immature Black-Crowned Night-Heron hidden in the shade along the trees off Wildlife Drive at J.N. Ding Darling NWR. I was using a 100-400mm lens @400mm. Luckily it did not go deeper into the trees as another one did that was next to it.
Great Spreadwing Damselfly
Posted on May 13, 2020
I am still going through backup drives for images to post here. But at the same time I am also editing out images I do not need on my backup drives. Which is freeing a lot of room on these drives for more recent work. This is an image of a Great Spreadwing Damselfly. I was using a Canon 70-300mm DO lens (Diffractive Optics) at 300mm on a Canon 7D. I was surprised that lens worked so well on this subject. It is not the “sharpest” Canon zoom lens for fine detail, but is convenient, stabilized & lightweight to carry. Also much shorter, but wider than a “normal” 70-300mm lens because of the Diffractive Optics. It really helps to shoot “raw” files with this lens & use Adobe Camera Raw to pull out more detail and smooth out the nasties.
Snowy Egret FlyBy
Posted on April 14, 2020
Another series of images from previous photo trips years ago. Here, even if you wanted to go to a local park, the entrances are blocked by Police Cars. So they are quite serious about staying at home. This is a series of Snowy Egret FlyBy images from a previous trip years ago to the J.N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge in Sanibel, Florida. The Snowy Egret images were photographed @ 300mm with a Canon 100-400mm lens.
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