I still want to get a slideshow up like GF’s last year, but it’s going to be quite awhile until i get around to that. So in the meantime i thought i’d just throw these ancient shots up that i took about a decade and a half ago, as due to quality issues i can’t really do anything else with them. I love to hang out with and shoot dragonflies and haven’t done it in many years. It does take some patience, but with the right lens it’s not as hard as it may seem, they’re fairly cooperative little critters. Friendly and curious too. Best place to find them is on a humid summer’s day at a pond’s edge. I smoke a cigarette or two while i wait for something to happen, and they’ll fly right up and settle, look at me, flap their wings, and I can swear that they say “Who are you? Why are you wreaking havoc on our habitat?”. They’ll fly away, but they return again and again to the same spot. And even pose for the shot too.
Top shot is a Widow Skimmer, shot over a pond. The white spot that looks like the moon is a goose feather floating on the water surface. Bottom is a 12-spot Skimmer, shot against reeds on a pond. I still love both of these shots, and haven’t managed to get anything remotely similar since.
Devendra Banhart seems to have spent some time hanging out with dragonflies too, but he drinks beer. Perfect trippy music for a summer dragonfly day, and a big thanks to Beth Noir for introducing me to him. (And you thought i was’t paying attention.)
Few tech notes for the interested – shot these with a Canon Elan 7E, EF 75-300 USM lens on Velvia 50 ASA. Drum scanned and photoshopped. The lens was before they made IS lenses, so the images are too soft to be of any commercial use, and they’re well unsharp masked.
Amylee; When I did that slideshow I was new to WordPress and was sorting through the how to files, I came across ‘how to do a slideshow’ so I just followed the instructions and it was dead easy, try it.
Hummingbirds are like dragonflies in that they’re very curious, quite a few times I’ve had one hover literally a foot in front of my nose staring straight at me, with that 2″ spike it’s a bit unnerving. I’ve tried raising my finger in hopes of getting one to alight but no luck yet, they love it when I spray water over the foliage of bushes, they fly straight into the ‘rain’ and hover. I once set up a permanent tripod about 10ft from a nest, I’d snap my camera and strobe onto it every day and retreat and shoot the mother bird feeding the chicks with a remote control. You need a strobe to freeze their wings, 1/500 doesn’t do it.
On three occasions I’ve also had them dive-bomb me from about 100ft up!
Thanks, GF! Shane gave me the instructions awhile ago, and then i stumbled on a whole bunch of different WP slideshow plugins that i have to test drive. It’s hard to find a workable one for me because i shoot probably around 90% vertical and most slideshow formats are set up for horizontal. But I just haven’t gotten around to processing this years’ shots yet, still trying to get them while the plants are fresh. Come summer when the light is mostly too harsh to shoot is when i start to edit and process.
I thought that most of those perfect hummingbird shots you see these days were from infrared trips or the like.
WOW!!! The photographs are beautiful!!!
The Devendra Banhart tracks are great also! They are a perfect partner to the photographs!
Great!!!
Purdy pictures !
Thanks, all!
Amazing bugs – look like sci-fi versions of WWI aircraft.
Gorgeous pics, Amy. Can’t comment on the music as I’ve got Eric Burdon and the Animals playing in the background – again! x
Addictive little fucker, isn’t it?