I spent some more time with the Blue Dashers (Pachydiplax longipennis) at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center this afternoon. This time, I stuck an extra 12mm of extension on my setup and tried to get as close as possible to the dragonflies. This definitely made a difference though my maximum magnification was limited by the fact that this guy was perching about 3 feet away over the pond and I couldn’t get closer without getting wet.
To be perfectly honest, I’ve cheated with this image since it’s a pretty extreme crop. I guess that’s OK for the blog, though, since I only show 700 pixel images here (note that this one isn’t for sale as a print).
Shows some great detail, even if it is a crop. Reckon it must always be hard getting this close to ’em.
Beautiful. Superb work.
I’m very interested to learn how this was achieved from three feet away. What is your setup and technique, please?
Thanks, David! The easiest way to answer your question is likely to point you at my tutorial page – http://www.davewilsonphotography.com/tutorials/a-beginners-guide-to-macro-photography/. For dragonflies and butterflies, I typically use either a 28-300mm or 70-300mm lens with 56mm of extension tubes (the larger two in a typical set of 3) added.