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Red Dragonfly
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Red Dragonfly

by Greg Linhares

Gallery: Macro & Close-upPosted June 28, 201172 views2 comments
Was out having lunch with family and friends while preparing for a day hike in Russian Gulch (Mendocino, CA), when someone spotted this beautiful red dragonfly hanging out by the edge of a small creek. I don't own a macro lens yet, although I don't think I would have been able to get very close without scaring it anyway, so I just used my Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 IS III USM and took this shot from about 3-4 feet away.

Canon 5DMII, 1/250 sec at f/8.0, ISO 125, 200mm.

Wishing I would have captured a little more depth of field at the tips of the wings and the lower body area, maybe f/11 or f/16 would have been a better choice in retrospect...

Comments

2 comments
Comment posted by Mark Seaver on June 29, 2011 at 7:43 PM
Yes, a major challenge in macro is choosing the dof. The colors here are striking and it's neat that the background vignettes the subject. I would like to see the wing tips and the entire thorax in focus. Another trick to help that is to get the back of the camera parallel to the subject.
Registered on January 23, 2011, 1103 Posts, 17270 Comments
Comment posted by Gary Yeoh on June 29, 2011 at 8:35 PM
Greg:
I agree with your critique on this image. Its always a compromise though, a smaller aperture may not give you this nice bg in this image.
Registered on September 1, 2009, 588 Posts, 8184 Comments