One for the entomologists out there.....

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Hawkeshead

Hawkeshead

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Managed to get this little critter, no idea what it is called but it had the decency to stay still for a reasonable while whilst I was bouncing around with a recently acquired 300mm prime which I didn't intend to use for macro!!

I banged up the focal length to try to get as much of the dragonfly/damselfly (?) in focus as much as possible and selecting a high shutter speed in the case the little blighter got bored or was spooked and made a run for it. Those observant forum members may surmise that it did indeed scarper but fortuitously came back to the same sunny spot after a brief aerial display.


Being in very bright midday sun, the inevitable consequence with these setting was the high ISO. The high shutter speed also assisted when hand holding this non VR lens. The D850 handled the noise well with only slight reduction needed in post.

Picking up on a recent thread from Steve, I did remember to adjust the Copyright year when exporting the second image :)

D50 300mm 2.8D ED ii manual mode, auto ISO
ISO 5000 420mm f16 1/1600
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I am trying to figure it out, but there are 320 species of Dragonflies in Australia, with 100 species in the Sydney area. If you are going to get into taking Dragonfly pictures it best to get a local guidebook. If the picture was taken here in Minnesota it would be a Pondhawk of some sort.

Good luck figuring it out! Post when you find out! This link might help out: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Odonata_species_of_Australia#Anisoptera_(dragonflies)


On the first page, you can go through and limit the possibilities by location in the country, then you can really dig in!!

Here is a picture I took of a female Eastern Pondhawk. The males have blue abdominal segments (tail) and that very large angular thorax (front) that Pondhawks are known for. Also note that a Pondhawk is also identified by the two claspers on the end of its abdomen (like yours), and the large spines on the legs (like yours). To help you ID your dragonfly, look for types that have that black spot on the leading edge of the wing at the tip. Sometimes eye color helps, but some dragonfly's eyes change color as they mature and start to mate.

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My biceps are developing after using this beast handheld in the D850 to track these critters. Mind you , it locked on nicely and after a bit of adjusting to the moving focus point in the viewfinder, (no VR to stabilise ), it didn’t take Kong to adjust and grab sone shots and learn how to keep the point on the right spot.
Now, where did I put that can of spinach....
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Looks like it to me! Dragonflies are a blast to photograph. Many dragonflies fly a very specific pattern over the water while they are hunting. This allows you to anticipate when they will slow down a bit, and sometimes even stop. I set my camera up on a tripod and set it to the spot and use a remote to fire off 20 or shots. After a few hundred....I get a good one!
 
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Hi John -- great shots of the dragonfly, which I am pretty sure is a male Julia Skimmer (Orthetrum julia ) -- Its taken me a couple of days to run down , you wouldn't believe how many Skimmers there are in Africa, and this is the closest identification I can get from a possible 12 other "runners" ! Brings me back to my Zoology days in university try to ID invertebrates -- perversely enjoyable .
 
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Thanks Dave for all your time and effort, as you can gather, I like to grab the image then wonder what it is. Now that I have a pointer, I will look it up after all your hard graft. Cheers.
 
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Nice capture. I don't know much about these guys, but here in US if the wings are spread all the time when perched, it's a dragonfly, if the are closed together, it's a damselfly.
 
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