Brown Dragonfly

I have been after this dragonfly for some time. I have collected quite a few shots, but they have just not quite made the grade. I knew I was going to get more opportunities with this particular critter, so I didn't want to blip it too soon, but rather wait until I had something special.

The first shot that I had was a stick end shot, easily blippable, but was superseded by the blue bee blip. Today the dragon arrived, alighting on the same stick end and gave me a great end on, almost blip standard shot, showing her face. Spooked, she moved to a near by tree were I managed a few more shots from the top.

Spooked again, she landed on some fruit that had been picked a few days ago and was left on the ground. From eight feet away I could clearly see the lattice work of the transparent wings against the yellow of the fruit. This was the special blip opportunity that I was waiting for. I did not want to blow this rare opportunity, so I checked my settings. I already had F11 for good DOF and the speed was fast too, with plenty of light.

I got down on my belly, commando style and very slowly slithered up, shooting as I went. I got to about fifteen inches before she finally lost patience with me and departed. It was straight back to the lab with these shots, no way was anything better going to happen today. The DOF was amazing, even though the starboard wings were sloping away from the camera. This was a rare opportunity, I know I was a lucky boy. Hope you don't mind two dragons on the trot.

Dave