Near impossible task

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Near impossible task

April 18, 2018 by Mike Powell

Are you patient and persistent? If so, you have the right temperament to try to photograph dragonflies in flight. Every dragonfly season I spent endless hours in mostly fruitless attempts to capture in-flight images of dragonflies. One of my friends on Facebook described this as “a near impossible task” and, of course, she is right.

My first somewhat successful effort this year was a shot of a Common Green Darner (Anax junius) patrolling above one of the paths at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge last Friday. As you might suspect, getting the moving dragonfly in focus is one of the biggest challenges, because the subject is too small for the camera’s autofocus to engage. Sometimes I will focus manually as I track the dragonfly and sometimes I will use a zone focusing technique in which I preset the focusing distance and wait (and hope) for the dragonfly to fly into the zone.

A near impossible task? It certainly is, but I enjoy the challenge the way that its pursuit confounds observers—one such observer watched me closely for several minutes on Friday and couldn’t figure out what I was trying to photograph.

Posted in dragonfly, Insects, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife | Tagged Anax junius, Canon 50D, Common Green Darner, Common Green Darner dragonfly, dragonfly in flight, Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, Tamron 150-600mm, Woodbridge VA | 11 Comments

11 Responses

on April 18, 2018 at 7:37 am | Reply Ellen

“I love the green-blue dragonfly!” says Benjamin. It must take a steady hand and the patience of a saint to photograph something so small and quick. We appreciate the result of your efforts. Benjamin wants to tell you : “I watched a deer in Gem’s yard yesterday!” Thank-you, Mr. Mike!!
- on April 18, 2018 at 8:08 am | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks. You can tell Benjamin that I too love to watch deer. Dragonflies come in all kinds of colors and this combination of blue and green is one of my favorites.
on April 18, 2018 at 7:58 am | Reply Dan Antion

Great shot, Mike!
on April 18, 2018 at 8:12 am | Reply Jodi

Wowza!!!!! Awesome
on April 18, 2018 at 8:13 am | Reply Laura (PA Pict)

Fantastic shot!
on April 18, 2018 at 5:12 pm | Reply New Hampshire Garden Solutions

Excellent!
on April 19, 2018 at 12:31 am | Reply Robert Kirkendall

Excellent shot! Reminds me of an old WWII flyer
- on April 19, 2018 at 4:35 am | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks. I love the analogy.
on April 19, 2018 at 7:57 pm | Reply Reed Andariese

Nice Mike! It is a challenge to shoot them in flight.
- on April 20, 2018 at 6:34 am | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks, Reed. It’s one of the things I like to try several times a year at least and with a little luck I will manage to capture some even better shots.
on April 23, 2018 at 9:21 am | Reply Jennifer Gonzalez

I have tried a few times. I got super close to one being in focus and it was very cool. It is certainly fun to try. Great shot.