Today’s Christmas Eve photos come from reader Mark Jones, who writes this:
A few photos left over from the summer/autumn. The dragonfly IDs are my best guess!
A Common Hawker (Aeshna juncea) in flight:
Some Common Darters (Sympetrum striolatum), although the last one may be a Ruddy Darter (Sympetrum sanguineum)?
All great! I have never been able to get a good picture of a dragonfly in flight. The only method I know is to ‘spray and pray’.
Pretty much my technique too! Although I do a bracketed three exposure shot to give me more chance of nailing one. I’ll try Lou Jost’s suggestion below.
Spraypraying or not, the resulting photo is really extraordinary.
Thanks Nicolaas!
Mark, have you looked at the high-speed video feature available in some cameras? You can extract good quality frames from them, so you can pick the one or two frames that are in focus as teh dragfonly passes. I’ve done this with hummingbirds; dragonflies would be harder but maybe possible.
oops, this was in response to Comment 1 from Mark.
That is a good idea. In my best camera (Canon 5diii) I don’t see a high speed setting per se, which is a shame since even an iPhone can record in slo-mo. It does have different frame rates, up to 60/sec though, which is meant for viewing on television in some countries. I could certainly look into that.
Very lovely!
Agreed.
Just beautiful!I love seeing the detail and the delicacy of these insects. Thank you!
Beautiful photos Mark! Thanks!
Love the “common” Hawker, very beautiful. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks for the comments!