Claypit Spectator

[kham]

Now, I dont think insects are that smart, but this fella (or his pals) showed up around noon for about 3-4 days in a row , landing in roughly the same spot. If I didnt know any better, I would say he was checking out the girls

[Robert]

As a long time fan of Dragon Flies ... This is a most spectacular spectator!!

Nice Shot!

Robert

[kham]

Thanks

Almost looks like he's grinning at the camera there, eh?

[water_bug_62208]

Now, I dont think insects are that smart, but this fella (or his pals) showed up around noon for about 3-4 days in a row , landing in roughly the same spot. If I didnt know any better, I would say he was checking out the girls

Take it from an entomologist... chances are very good that this common pond skimmer (the general common name for this family of dragonflies... you can identify this family by the pattern of its wing venation) is indeed a "fella," it is probably the same fella day after day, he lands roughly in the same spot as this is his "look out" position over his area of operation that he deems to be "his" territory, and, yes, the lady dragonflies of his species are one of the things he's looking for. He's also on the watch for other males of his species that intrude upon his territory... and they're not treated very kindly.

Great photograph! Dragonflies are really cool. May I please ask what lens you used to capture this wonderful shot?

Thanks for sharing!

[kham]

*fumbles for notes

That was shot with the Nikon D300, using a Nikkor 80-400mm zoom at around 270mm F/5.6 , 1/250 sec at ISO 400

He was very cooperative, just damn close to shoot with the big lens; I was on the slope/dropoff on one side of the pit, so had to watch my step

[Fred588]

And, I might add, the shot was hand held.

[water_bug_62208]

Outstanding! Figure it had to be a zoom. The Nikon 80-400 is a nice lens, and the Nikon D300 is a cool camera. I still have its predecessor, the Nikon D200.

Handheld, eh? With or without the Vibration Reduction feature switched on?

Great picture, and thank you, Kham and Fred, for the "behind the scene" information!

[kham]

With the big lens, almost always have the VR switched on; it doesnt use that much power, and it gains you 2-3 f-stops when shooting in low light where shutter speeds may be lower than you would like

[MuddyEddie]

It is an awesome shot! Too bad you didn't have time to switch out to an f/11 or even an f/16 lens. That would have made for a really detailed shot of all its features!

But I won't argue with the fact that there's no way I'd have done better! That's why I look at the pictures and others take them!

Eddie

[Nessie]

Wow! When some guys said they wished they could be "the fly on the wall" during a quicksand shoot, I didn't realize that one of them had finally found a way to do just that.

Careful. Don't squash him. You wouldn't want to find a forum member suddenly missing.

(Just kidding. He's cute, though. And you got a good shot of him.)

Nessie