Eastern Amberwing and Blue Dasher

[Andrew Lamberson]

Both using the Nikon D500 and 300 PF.

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[Charles Loy]

Drilled it, both of them

 

[Andrew Lamberson]

Thanks!!

 

[aolander]

Nice images of both of them. I don't think I've seen either one of these species.

 

[sh1209]

Gorgeous pics! The dragonflies are all but gone from here.

 

[Bill M]

Love the amber wing with complementary background.

 

[Andrew Lamberson]

"The dragonflies are all but gone from here."

According to my best buddy who is an Aquatic Entomologist (Ph.D.) : Dragonflies are poikilothermic insects: their activity increases as the temperature increases.

Monday am I went out early and there were 0 bugs. NONE! When back out at 3 (88 degrees) and there were everywhere!

I needed a better side shot of the Blue Dasher to confirm the ID. This confirms it!

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5 image stack to get the head/tail and all the wings in focus.

 

[aolander]

Great job with the stack! Are Blue Dashers usually by water?

 

[sh1209]

"The dragonflies are all but gone from here."

According to my best buddy who is an Aquatic Entomologist (Ph.D.) : Dragonflies are poikilothermic insects: their activity increases as the temperature increases.

Monday am I went out early and there were 0 bugs. NONE! When back out at 3 (88 degrees) and there were everywhere!

I needed a better side shot of the Blue Dasher to confirm the ID. This confirms it!

View attachment 22608

5 image stack to get the head/tail and all the wings in focus.

Beautiful shot! I went out yesterday and saw a few but not near as many as even a week ago. It’s supposed to be sweltering the rest of the week, so we’ll see if it improves. I’ve never tried to focus stack a dragonfly but do it quiet often with slower moving bugs. I’ll have to give that a try.

 

[Andrew Lamberson]

Yes. We have a lot of backwater areas of the Mississippi River here on pool 5a. I took these shots at the Minnesota Boat Club in Minnesota City which is about 5 miles from my house. They are a BIG bug!

The Eastern Amberwing is only about 1" long and according to the Dragonflies of the North Woods, we are in the very northern portion of its territory.

 

[aolander]

" Dragonflies of the North Woods "

One of my favorite reads next to "Butterflies of the North Woods".

 

[Andrew Lamberson]

And Damselfies of Mn, Wi and Mich.

 

[aolander]

And Damselfies of Mn, Wi and Mich.

I don't have that one. No wonder you can ID those damselflies so easily.

 

[Niels.hr.Hansen]

Very lovely images, amazing that you get to take 5 shots before it takes of again

 

[Andrew Lamberson]

Thanks!

The Helicon FB Tube works with the camera set to high-speed shutter (10 fps), so I get more than enough in 1 second! Many species of Dragonflies will have a "favorite perch" so they can watch over their territory. So once you figure that out, you can focus on the perch and manually adjust the focus once they land.

I have to use a tripod and I also use a remote shutter release to make sure everything is settled down before I shoot. The slightest movement and the dragonfly with 2 claspers on its abdomen will end up with 3 or 4 in the stack result!