Here are a variety of dragonflies and damselflies from my walk through a wetland area last weekend. As you can see, they were plentiful. I used both my DA*60-250 and DFA 100mm Macro along with the 1.4x teleconverter.

[bertwert]

Well done! These are extremely detailed, I like them.
Thanks for sharing

[DW58]

Wonderful series. Such fantastic subjects captured beautifully.

[reh321]

Here are a variety of dragonflies and damselflies from my walk through a wetland area last weekend. As you can see, they were plentiful. I used both my DA*60-250 and DFA 100mm Macro along with the 1.4x teleconverter.

How do you see these subjects? How do you look for them? Three weeks ago I spent a weekend at a park that is 50% wetlands {and all small insects like mosquitoes, gnats}, and I never did see a dragonfly.

[ToddK]

Well done! These are extremely detailed, I like them.
Thanks for sharing

Thanks for your comment bertwert.

Wonderful series. Such fantastic subjects captured beautifully.

Thanks so much. They were making it easy for me by not flying off.

How do you see these subjects? How do you look for them? Three weeks ago I spent a weekend at a park that is 50% wetlands {and all small insects like mosquitoes, gnats}, and I never did see a dragonfly.

I think because my area is very dry in the summer, there are not a lot of good wetland areas so it concentrates them. My wife and I walk on a path through this area frequently and I noticed that there are a lot of them this time of year. The wetland is a tiny creek with a lot of overhanging grasses. They fly over the water, I assume catching tiny flying insects, but they need to land frequently, so I found a couple of good spots to hang around on the bank and wait for them to land.

[ignath]

magnificent creatures and great shots!

[LensBeginner]

These are fit for a nature book.
I like No.3 best, that blue really catches the eye.

[ToddK]

magnificent creatures and great shots!

Thanks ignath, they are truly magnificent.

These are fit for a nature book.
I like No.3 best, that blue really catches the eye.

Thanks, I like that one the best as well. Besides the color, there is something about that face with kind of a space alien look.

[SSGGeezer]

Number 3 is a great, and I mean great! shot of a common Blue Damselfly. perfect focus and DOF are hard to get sometimes since they are long and thin!

[ToddK]

Number 3 is a great, and I mean great! shot of a common Blue Damselfly. perfect focus and DOF are hard to get sometimes since they are long and thin!

Thanks for your appreciation! You are right about the difficulty of getting them in complete focus, they don't usually give you enough time for making adjustments.

[reh321]

Thanks for your appreciation! You are right about the difficulty of getting them in complete focus, they don't usually give you enough time for making adjustments.

If you can tolerate higher ISO values on your camera, these might be good candidates for TAv mode; set shutter speed to 1/1000; set aperture to f/9.5, and have the camera pick an ISO value that will make this work

[SSGGeezer]

With the DA* and DFA he is fine at 5.6 but 1/1000 or faster is a good idea as long as the K-5 stays under ISO 3200 or so. These are very crisp images so what Todd is doing works pretty well!

[Heinrich Lohmann]

A very, very nice set, love the colors in the last one.

[ToddK]

If you can tolerate higher ISO values on your camera, these might be good candidates for TAv mode; set shutter speed to 1/1000; set aperture to f/9.5, and have the camera pick an ISO value that will make this work

With the DA* and DFA he is fine at 5.6 but 1/1000 or faster is a good idea as long as the K-5 stays under ISO 3200 or so. These are very crisp images so what Todd is doing works pretty well!

I appreciate both of your suggestions. TAv is a good idea that I don't use often enough.

A very, very nice set, love the colors in the last one.

Heinrich, thanks so much for your comments!

[eaglem]

Excellent shots......very colourful and detailed.