Saturday, June 23, 2012

Dragonflies/damselflies

Today was going to be an extremely hot day with temperatures in the 90s and very high heat index.  I decided to do some early morning photography on a subject that I have not photograph that all this year I went to one of my favorite spots for photographing dragonflies, and damselflies.  The location has a parking lot and requires no tramping through woods of brush.  Behind this area is a marsh, which is part of Long Pond.  For these photographs.  My equipment consisted of a Nikon D800, Tamron 180 mm f/3.5 macro 1:1 lens Acratech Ultimate Ballhead , on a tripod.
By starting off early, you can approach the dragonflies before they are fully active.  By utilizing the longer lens, I do not have to approach as close to the dragonfly to get a full frame almost full frame picture.  The hardest part is getting enough depth of field.  To have the entire dragonfly in focus, though at times it may not be necessary, just have the eyes and face in focus for a unusual portrait.
However, the hardest part of dragonfly photography is the final identification of the creature.  I utilize some field guides to help me with the identification: "a Field guide to the dragons and damselflies of Massachusetts."  2nd edition, which is available from (mail only): Massachusetts Natural Heritage Program <http://www.state.ma.us/dfwele/dfw/nhesp/nhesp.htm; "dragonflies through binocular's "
Even with these excellent field guides, I still have difficulty in identifying the dragonflies, and damselflies that I have photographed. 
For any of the  pictures below that I could not identify, if you can identify  dragonflies/damselflies.  Please comment on the name on the site.  I really appreciate any help that you can provide.
Common Pond Hawk
Eastern Pond Hawk
 _D8C6411 June 21, 2012 NIKON D800 _D8C6418 June 21, 2012 NIKON D800 _D8C6429 June 21, 2012 NIKON D800 _D8C6435 June 21, 2012 NIKON D800 _D8C6443 June 21, 2012 NIKON D800 _D8C6448-Edit June 21, 2012 NIKON D800 _D8C6463 June 21, 2012 NIKON D800 _D8C6472 June 21, 2012 NIKON D800 _D8C6479 June 21, 2012 NIKON D800 _D8C6483 June 21, 2012 NIKON D800 _D8C6512 June 21, 2012 NIKON D800 _D8C6533 June 21, 2012 NIKON D800 _D8C6541 June 21, 2012 NIKON D800 _D8C6553 June 21, 2012 NIKON D800 _D8C6558 June 21, 2012 NIKON D800 _D8C6570 June 21, 2012 NIKON D800 _D8C6576 June 21, 2012 NIKON D800 _D8C6583 June 21, 2012 NIKON D800 _D8C6593 June 21, 2012 NIKON D800

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