Lethal Weapon

Well, success! I have been after a decent shot of the male Emperor Dragonfly for 2 years and finally bagged it today. You have no idea how difficult it was to get this shot. I know it's not perfect, and I would have liked to have frozen the wing movement, but I doubt that I could have done better at the distance I was working from and with the equipment I've got. These things really are a sight to see, hunting their prey of other airborne insects - they are deadly accurate, merciless and ravenous. Their eyes are massive, taking on the form of the helmet of an apache helicopter pilot. And look how neatly they tuck their undercarriage legs up leaving a kind of hull resembling a seaplane - maybe they have evolved that way to prevent catching the water surface when hunting below the radar (I've gone far enough with the aviation analogy now).


The scientific stuff (source: British Dragonfly Society)
The Emperor Dragonfly (Anax imperator)
Length: 78mm
Britain's bulkiest Dragonfly. Its bright colours and active habit make it very obvious when hunting over medium to large water bodies. It rarely settles, even eating its prey in flight. Both sexes have a bright, apple-green thorax and green or blue eyes. The costa is bright yellow. They often fly with the rear of the abdomen bent slightly downwards.
The male has a sky blue abdomen with a central dark line.
The female has a green abdomen, similarly marked, which may become blue in warm weather.
Habitat
Mostly associated with large, well vegetated ponds and lakes, but may be found over canals and slow moving rivers. The female lays her eggs, alone, in floating pondweed.
Status & Distribution
Widespread in southern England and southern Wales; increasing its range northwards. Recently appeared in Ireland.

My Baldrickian cunning plan employed to achieve success was;
1. Watch the dragons repetitive approach pattern and set a manual focus fixed on the nearest point that I was to it (continual focus point tracking on my Nikon lens was just too slow)
2. Select continuous high speed shooting and aperture priority, and use my 70-300mm zoom lens.
3. select not the smallest aperture but one where you can still keep the shutter speed up in the hundreds, with the ISO as low as possible to keep noise levels low and retain detail.
4. Come off RAW setting and select fine Jpeg - increases the frames per second to 8 or so on my D300.
5. Wait till late afternoon so the slanting light is better and can come in from the side or behind me. Lie in wait and hope the sun stays out to keep those shutter speeds high.
6. start firing the shots off before he arrives in the focus zone and continue till he leaves it
7. Spend ages selecting the treasured shot out of the three hundred or so taken. Best done with a cold beer to assist the process.


Note; Having explained how difficult it is to get close to these guys, I must tell you about what happened half way through my shoot. I had arrived at the pond on my bike and still had my helmet on when I started shooting. I then watched two males fighting above the water, and as they continued to squabble, they both flew straight for my helmet (which I guess was reflecting in the sun) and got snagged up in the flutes of it. So there I was, camera in hand, having a panic attack because I had a head full of giant dragonflies. You can perhaps imagine the spectacle (would have made a good Blip!).
I removed my helmet after that. :)