Sometimes my photos convey the mistaken impression that dragonflies are large and are easy to find and photograph. Using telephoto and macro lenses and a stealthy approach, I try to isolate the dragonflies, so that viewers can focus on the beautiful details of these amazing aerial acrobats.
The reality though, is that most dragonflies are quite small—this male Eastern Amberwing dragonfly (Perithemis tenera) is only about one inch (25 mm) in length—and they often fly about amidst vegetation that conceals their movements.
This image gives you a sense of the vastness of the environment and some of the challenges in spotting the dragonflies. Of course, the second challenge is getting close enough to the subject without scaring it away, though in this case I was content to capture a wide-angle shot that shows this dragonfly in its preferred environment.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
Hi Mike,
I watched your You tube video on photographing dragonflies inflight, which brought me here , I enjoyed your video thank you. as flying dragons are my main photographic interest.
I use a 100mm 2.8 macro lens on a Canon cropped sensor for my flight shots so obviously I need to get close to take a decent sized image, Have you tried a macro lens for your shots?
Very best regards
Dave
Thanks, Dave. I have taken quite a few of my dragonflies in flight shots with a macro lens with a Canon crop sensor camera (a 50D and then a 7D). In my case, I used a Tamron 180mm macro lens, which has a bit more reach than the 100mm macro lens that I also own. The advantage of the macro lens, as compared with the one I use mostly now–the Tamron 18-400mm lens–is that I can concentrate mostly on tracking the dragonfly and maintaining in the frame without worrying about zooming in or out. As I noted in the video, patience and persistence are the key requirements–your gear should work fine, especially if you manage to find some dragonflies that hover a bit.
I checked you flickr stream and you have some amazing shots!!!
Hi Mike, many thanks for your reply,
I’ve never had much success tracking with any of my long lenses, maybe because I have my camera set up wrong? that’s probably why I use the macro in manual mode, the mode I am most use too.
Thank you for a great Blog and also for checking out my flickr stream, very much appreciated.
Kind regards
Dave
My daughter and I are rewinding and nurturing a food forest. As a result we have tons of tiny winged people whom my daughter often photographs:)