Caught It! In Mid-Flight!

[Loupey]

If you ever wanted an exercise in exasperation and exhilaration at the same time, trying capturing these guys while they're hunting.

I could only do it for about 30 minutes and fired off only about 30 rounds. Great exercise of your manual focusing skills not to mention hand-eye coordination. Yikes!

[paulnj]

I have caught a few, but wow is that hard!

GREAT CATCH THERE!

[Knight]

Loupey stop im getting real envious here lol. But keep them comming

[poker]

Good Job! Can't even imagine how you did it.

[Loupey]

Some specs on the shots:

Both: ISO 200, 70-200 zoom with 2x TC, Canon 10D
Top: 1/125s at f/16, 360mm
Bottom: 1/350s at f/11, 315mm

The Trick: since they hover for only about 1/2 second at a time, you gotta follow them around in the viewfinder until they stop and try to snap that focus manually within that time. Fortunately for me, I can shoot with both eyes open so I can follow the DF with my left eye while positioning the blurry viewfinder of my right eye. When the two images overlap (i.e. the DF from the left is centered on the viewfinder of the right), I know I am properly aligned and adjust focus at that time.

I think I have one or two more acceptable ones. I'll post them if they come out.

[Loupey]

OK, two more to share

[OBie]

Amazing Loupey. Exercise in exasperation indeed! Very cool shots.

[Bevb]

Wow! super shots, and you say you have trouble taking birds in flight!

[STinGa]

I bet you can catch flies with chopsticks, too. Great shots.

[SmartWombat]

It's hard to catch them in flight, definitely.
Somewhere I have a B&W negative of one sitting on my knee devouring a fly.

These are called "Hawker" dragonflies in the UK
They fly a regular patrol pattern, within their own territory
Once you find that territory and their favourite hunting places, you know where to go ... that's half the battle of getting the picture !
They often have favourite eating perches too, maybe a reed, or a twig.
Find that and you can get even closer shots, with patience.

But the real challenge is getting them mid-flight, I'd never try that with film - I doubt I'd average one per roll of 35mm

[Loupey]

Paul, thanks for the info. Yeah, this one was definitely patrolling a specific area over this pond. That obviously helped me get these shots as it zipped away, came back, chased others away, and darted after prey. I hoped it would land or that it would eat on the fly but I was getting tired and my CF card was running out of space!

STinGA, "wax on, wax off"

Bev, see above (not the one about the wax). If birds kept flying around in a 15' x 15' area and hover, then I might have a chance