Another Dragon

[molucca]

Thanks Mike,

I use an Olympus E10. The camera was set to Macro so that I could focus up close. The camera was set to auto. I did change the sleep time so it wouldn't keep turning off and keep me from missing a shot while the camera initialized. I am sure some of the out of focus was just me not holding the camera steady enough. When I reduce the image size they lose thier crispness, too. Maybe there is a better way. It was windy, about 25 knots, and lots of clouds. The lighting was changing constantly. I imagine that when I half pressed the shutter button to set the focus, that the camera read the lighting. There may have been enough change in the lighting to overexpose. I noticed some of the flying shots were overexposed as well. It was difficult to follow a dragonflys flight and get a photo a few inches away. I never got anything with the wings not blurred. Rich

[mike engles]

Hello

Use the exposure compensation to -1 stop.
Most cameras tend to overexpose.

You need stop of f11 to get good depth of field.
So at iso 100 and f11 on a bright day you will need a shutter speed of about /250th. That will not freeze the wings. Does the camera have flash and allow off camera flash. That will get you much more crispness. It won't really help the flying shots. Those are almost impossible.

I used to do a lot of closeup photography using a OM4 with macro lenses and flash. Wasted a lot of film. Sometimes a whole roll of film would not have one usable image.

This is something I took many years ago when my hands were steadier. I scanned with a Ls50.Film was Ektachrome 50.

Keep on trying, it will get better.

Mike Engles

[molucca]

Thanks again Mike,

It is great to see what is possible. I'll have to study my camera manual to make the settings. I have an external flash from my film camera, but I never got it to work well with the E10. I haven't tried to change the iso settings. I think the default is 80. Steadier hands sounds like I should have started a long time ago. Rich

[mike engles]

Hello

This is one type of photography that is almost impossible using a tripod. These creatures are very mobile ands will fly off with the slightest disturbance. The best you can do to work a system. Use the same settings and be as quiet as you can. At least with digital, there is no waste. With film I used dozens of rolls to get one really sharp, well exposed and well framed image.

What you can do with 'darter' dragon flies is to put a tall stick in the ground. Dragon flies are territorial and they like a vantage point.
They will be attracted to the stick and will use it. You need to let them get used to you being near by. You might be able to use a tripod, if you are lucky.

Mike Engles