Nature clicks #115 - Brown-spotted Yellow-wing

The best way to escape the heat here in Iowa is to spend time on the water. Yesterday my younger sister, who is here for a visit at the moment, and I went for another kayak tour over to Wisconsin. I introduced her to Twin Lake in Governor Dodge State Park, a place I have written about before here in this blog. For the first time I took my camera into the kayak. It's still a little scary to me but everything went well. I just took the SIGMA 150/f2.8 with the 1.4 teleconverter attached into the boat. I wanted to focus on insects this time but this combination gave me the range for a possible bird shot as well. There is an abundance of dragonflies along the shore of this beautiful lake at the moment. The Brown-spotted Yellow-wing was one of them and I'm happy to show you this interesting creature again here in my blog. Stay cool!

Nature clicks #52 - Green Clearwing Dragonfly

Here is another one from last weekend's "dragonfly shooting". This Green Clearwing was sitting on a branch at the edge of the woods not far from the water. It didn't let me come as close as I liked to, but at least it was cooperative and came always back to the same perch.  I had enough time to try different exposure settings and to experiment with the depth of field. What you see here is one of the pictures taken at f/4. I like it better than other ones at f/5.6 or f/8 even if the abdomen is already outside of the DOF area. As you can see the background is still a little distracting but I like how it tells the story about the habitat of this beautiful dragonfly. The macro purists will probably say, this is not a real macro shot. I agree, but my goal as a wildlife photographer is to show the animal embedded in its natural habitat. This may not always be possible and sometimes not even desirable, but it is the direction I like to head for.

Nature clicks #50 - Brown-spotted Yellow-wing Dragonfly

Nikon D200, SIGMA 150mm/2.8, 1/750s, f/4, -0.5 EV, ISO 100, tripod

I just realized that this one is already the 50th post filed under "Nature clicks". It is a coincidence that today's image is larger than usual. I just thought that my subject deserves a little more than the 620 pixel I use normally for the long side of the pictures I post here.

Despite the heat I couldn't resist to visit the Green Island Wetlands again today. The water is very low and except for a family of Pied-billed Grebes and a couple Killdeer I did not see any birds. One of my favorite ponds was even drained and I wonder what happened to the Moorhens, Yellow-headed Blackbirds, and other species I had found there during the last few months.

I put the long lens away and mounted the SIGMA 150 mm, f/2.8 Macro DG HSM to my camera. This lens has never disappointed me. It is ideal for shooting insects. The 150 mm gives me the extra distance that is sometimes necessary in order not to scare away an animal. The lens produces tack sharp images and if a picture is not sharp I have only to blame myself for.

When I shoot butterflies or other fast moving insects in our yard I handhold the camera with the 150/2.8. There is no way that you can follow one of the swallowtails with their fast movement from flower to flower if the camera sits on a tripod. It is a different story when it comes to Dragon- or Damselflies. They perch quite often on a twig or leaf. Even if they fly around for a little while, Dragonflies return often to the same or a place nearby. All what it needs is a slow and careful approach and of course some patience. Having the camera on a tripod helps definitely in this matter. Manual focus works sometimes better, especially if the insect is almost translucent.

The Brown-spotted Yellow-wing here was my first encounter of this beautiful dragonfly. What you don't see is the sweat dropping from my forehead and running down my back while kneeling in the dust beside the gravel road… But I enjoy it!