More bugs!
White -Faced Meadow Hawk
Was at Mom’s and saw some cool looking little dragonflies. Actually some were dragonflies and some were Damselflies.
I was able to photograph one of each that day.
A Familiar Bluet Damselfly and a White-Faced Meadow Hawk Dragonfly.
Here is what I learned.
They are tiny just 2 inches! They fly around but do perch, so you have to be ready!
Manual focus is a must.
You need a long lens. I used my 70-300mm which is the longest I have.
Use a fast shutter speed, camera hand-held and at times an external flash.
They are difficult to focus on because they are so small. It is hard to get the whole image in focus because they perch on an angle.
The White-Faced Meadow Hawk liked to perch in the sun and was easier to photograph. It flew off then flew back to the same spot several times. When he was in the bright sun I didn’t need to use my external flash. I was able to stand pretty close and got far more images of that one.
Familiar Bluet
The Bluet was much more difficult. He liked to be down underneath the ferns in the shade. Making him very hard to find and focus on! I needed to use the external flash every time. I had to squat down the whole time which was very hard on the knees. And I almost fell in the swamp!
This was my first attempt at photographing these little guys. All in all I am pleased with the images I got and had fun. Well except for the almost falling in thing!
A big thanks to my nephew Jr and Andrew (Hemi, good catch!) for clearing a path and leading the way for me to be a get back into the swamp. That made getting these images possible.
Vickie Szumigala Photo Blog 