Monday, October 12, 2009

Great Blue Skimmer

I brought my Newbie Group (Tampa Bay Newbie Photographers Workshops) to Sawgrass Lake Park in St Petersburg, FL yesterday for their bi-monthly lesson and shoot.

Right after my lesson, I spotted this Dragonfly landing on a leaf in this bush just outside of the picnic pavilion where we have our lessons. I grabbed my camera right away and captured this beauty. It was funny, because we were just talking about capturing Dragonflies and how hard it is to get them.

While this position is not the most desirable position to photograph them, I'm happy with the way this grab shot came out. I only had a chance for 3 shots before he flew off. I'm fascinated by Dragonflies because I love their faces; they always look like they're smiling. I also like how delicate they are. I've never been afraid of them and just recently found out that they bite. I never knew that. They just don't look that scary. It hasn't stopped me from photographing them, though.

This was a grab shot, so the settings used were my basic starting settings. I didn't have time to adjust. Whenever I'm done reading my media card after a shoot, the first thing I do is make sure my photos transferred correctly on my computer and are still there after I remove the card from my reader. Then I put it back in my camera, format it, and reset all my settings so it's ready for the next shoot. My normal settings are: ISO200, continuous drive, F7.1, Aperture Priority, Center-weighted metering, RAW, Cloudy White Balance.

4 comments:

Mango said...

The color in this shot is wonderful--I love the blue & green combination and the gossamer wings. Even more than that, I like the way you suggest we develop good habits so we don't miss that once-in-a-lifetime shot. Nice grab, Loyce!

Unknown said...

Thank you, Margo. I just noticed when I looked at the photo again, that it appears that he has extra wings.

I didn't do a thing to this in Photoshop other than resize it and convert it to jpg for the web. He must be a freak or the extra wings are a shadow. I don't know why I didn't notice that before.

WatchFan1 said...

That's a great shot, Loyce.. I think your bug was a close cousin to my bug I just shot last FRI. Similar shape - different colors. The FedEx guys dropped off my lens at the office and the first thing I could think of is to place it on my camera and look for some bugs outside in the parking lot...LOL!

http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee69/FL_Investor/CanonForum/IMG_2871.jpg

Unknown said...

They are similar. That's what I've been doing all day--playing with my new lens. I'm loving it, too!