Ruth Mayer
August 2026 - dragonflies
Original
About the Image(s)
I take a lot of photos of dragonflies. Some are good and some not so good. I got this one last summer and was pleased I got one in the background flying but I debated as whether I should remove or crop out the flying one. To me the photo is about the one on the leaf. I have included the photo of the one where the blurred dragonfly is in the background. I used an OM1 mark 1 and with a 40-150mm lens and a 2x teleconverter. F5.6 ss 3200 Iso1600 I took it into photoshop and made some adjustment also used topaz AI for a little noise reduction and sharpening.
5 comments posted
Hi Ruth: Really nice picture of the Dragonfly. The position of the dragonfly on the leaf is quite graceful, then you managed to obtain pretty good sharpness on the fly. You do not have much depth of field at f/5.6.
The lighting conditions at the time were ideal, no bright sun to create black shadows. You did a fine job of blurring out the background.
I think in the picture with the other dragonfly in flight to the left would have been a distraction. Posted: 08/11/2026 19:25:52
The lighting conditions at the time were ideal, no bright sun to create black shadows. You did a fine job of blurring out the background.
I think in the picture with the other dragonfly in flight to the left would have been a distraction. Posted: 08/11/2026 19:25:52
Thank you
I will up my fstop a little next time and see what I get. Posted: 08/12/2026 20:06:18
I will up my fstop a little next time and see what I get. Posted: 08/12/2026 20:06:18
Hi Ruth,
This is a very nice image of a Great Blue Skimmer (Libellula vibrans) (male).
Tack sharp subject and leaf, immobilised wings, visible hair on its legs. Good cropping.
My only suggestion would be to remove the blade of grass on the left side of the image and add a slight dark vignette.
Well done. A keeper. Posted: 08/12/2026 01:44:43
This is a very nice image of a Great Blue Skimmer (Libellula vibrans) (male).
Tack sharp subject and leaf, immobilised wings, visible hair on its legs. Good cropping.
My only suggestion would be to remove the blade of grass on the left side of the image and add a slight dark vignette.
Well done. A keeper. Posted: 08/12/2026 01:44:43
Thank you, I didn't know it's name or that it was a male. I will take the blade of grass out next time. Posted: 08/12/2026 20:07:55
Great dragonfly image. The composition and soft background really highlights your subject nicely. I love the simplicity of this scene. As noted earlier, you don't have a lot of depth-of-field in this image (using f/5.6). While this ensures that the background is soft, you do loose sharpness along the dragonfly, especially along the back wing and body. This is one of the challenges with these types of images. Normally one does not have sufficient time to create a focus stack (although with some of the automated stacking features in newer cameras one might be able to try), so a stopped down aperture may be your only recourse. Posted: 08/16/2026 16:36:50