Dragonflies and damselflies in flight with the Amazing OM-1 and 150-400mm lens
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ต.ค. 2023
- Today I have a go at photographing dragonflies and damselflies in flight. If you can get pictures of flying insects then when you go back to flying birds it will seem easy. Excellent practice material!
The OM-1 does not have insect detection so I use airplane and bird detection. They both seem to work equally well, but it is a very difficult subject to keep in the frame.
I use the 150-400mm lens which focuses down to 1.3m so very versatile.
Mike Lane wildlife photography www.nature-photography.co.uk/
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Well that was something completely different! As always a very enjoyable and interesting video.
Glad you enjoyed it!
I enjoy this time of year (Queensland) when I switch from bird photography to shooting dragonflies for a while. They're so challenging and rewarding. I shoot from a mobility scooter whilst permanently connected to an oxygen bottle so very limited where and what I get access to. The range of birds, dragonflies and Damselflies here is plenty to keep me occupied. I use a 5Dsr generally with a 90mm Tamron but will try with the R6 this season. Watching you every week and always enjoy, thanks
Thank you.
Excellent
Thank you! Cheers!
Nice. The damselfly @10:30 for me. I also want to mention that the digital focus limiter is a great tool when photographing insects in flight. I set it to the expected distance to the subject, say two meters, and a range of something like 150cm... 250cm, or even narrower if the insects tend to return to the same spot. This way you reduce the risk of the AF failing to detect small or skinny subjects or lock on the background. Forgot to mention I shoot hand-held which makes it easy to recompose and adjust the distance to the subject.
I think I tried the focus limiter while doing the dragonflies, but mostly without.
Thanks, Mike. I have the odd successful in-flight shot using both the 300 and 40-150 with the OM1. Can’t wait to try out the 150-400 now. Your tips about wind and sun, plus Pro Capture might make my sharp shots a little less random!
You are welcome.
Love me some dragonflies! They're my main target in the summer. Adding to that, living in the Netherlands we get a really nice diversity of southern and northern species.
They seem more scarce in the UK than I remember from my youth. Just like birds!
@@MikeLaneFRPSI work as a volunteer in Dragonfly conservation here in the Netherlands and its a bit of a mixed bag, generalists like common or moustached darter are doing well, while others like common or bog hawkers, or some of the northern/cold weather bluets are collapsing at alarming rates, possibly due to drought. However, you'd probably need to look at reports of the British Dragonfly societies to see how it's going on the isles.
@NotSoGoodGamingTV pretty much the same here. Bunch of new species from Europe, some southern/ formerly restricted species spreading north and colder climate species declining all as the climate warms.
Fantastic Mike as always.
Glad you enjoyed it
Fabulous - thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Hi Mike, thanks for sharing those great tips.👍
No problem 👍
Great shots and video. I did a video on photographing dragonflies in flight where I d3mknstrated using manual focus with the 300mm F4 and it was my 1st summer with the OM-1 so I had even considered the subject detect modes. Had about 5 fellow OM-1 users tell me to use bird detect so I tried it an overall it was good, but i found sometimes it didnt quite lock on or would focus on the wing tip or abdomen and not the eyes head which it wouldnt detect most the time.
Worked great with the 90mm macro too, when i had a hwker jover close to me!
Last year I tried tosee all the UK odonata species, and in my opinion the easiest to photograph are Southern Migrant Hawkers and Migtant Hawkers, followed by Norfolk Hawker and Common Hawker, with Emperor below them as you describe, they only hover briefly!
I guesss AF will always fail at some point no matter how good it gets, but it is better than me!
Amazing🎉
Thanks 😄
OMG! this @11:20 photo is MAGNIFICENT!
Excellent video, Mike. You are correct that practicing shooting Dragonflies in flight would be great conditioning for improving BIF success. As you also pointed out the 'giant' species of Dragonflies just seem to never land or hover - and all Dragonflies love to harass one another -- much like Hummingbirds! Excellent tips, and excellent photos!
Thanks.
I have shot a lot of butterflies in flight this year, I am really hoping that Olympus bring out a butterfly recognition mode but I guess that is a bit optimistic. Sometimes the Af seems to lock onto the subject and sometimes not. It is sometimes possible to get an entire take off sequence with pro capture which makes it all worthwhile as the shots can be unique. It is really a numbers game.
Interesting to see something other than just bird Mike
when you are a macro fan boy like mee .. but also like birds :D
Interesting video as usual and thanks for sharing ! Ronny//
Enen I need a change sometimes.
I find Emperors among the hardest to photograph because they rarely stop patrolling above the pond. Migrant Hawkers are much easier because they do hover quite predictably. I use the 300mm with the 1.4 converter on my OM1 and this combo works quite well. Thanks for another informative and entertaining video Mike.
Thanks
hi mike
My big compliments for your beautiful photo work with the dragonfly, you did a really good job.❤
yours sincerely
Thank you very much!
Enjoyed watching as always Mike and I'm glad you've done a video on Odonata. Dragonflies were the first wildlife I ever photographed, which in turn got me into photographing birds and helped me develop a genuine interest in wildlife. I think dragons and damsels are so photogenic whether in flight or perched! I use the Olympus 300mm pro and the 60mm macro and have had good results
Glad you enjoyed it
I have a camera that takes 12 frames per second, which I think is a lot but "50 frames per second", conjures images of hours and hours of processing! 😎I have noticed that dragonflies often use the same perch quite often but I wasn't aware of taking notice of the wind direction which makes perfect sense now you have pointed it out.
There are some very fast programs for culling images. I use Breezebrowser and can get the numbers down very quickly.
Mike, I'm so glad to see you doing dragonflies. I've spent several happy hours entertaining myself trying to shoot dragonflies. They are a real challenger. I'm using a D850 so I've had to develop some techniques to help me get on them. One thing is that I use manual exposure and then prefocus on an area with autofocus. Occasionally I get a good sharp image of one in flight when it reaches its hover point. They tend to hover near the same general area when they are getting ready to turn around and go back the way they came. Not always, but often enough that I can prefocus on the water in that's general location and be somewhat ready when it hovers there again. I can usually spend an hour or so in the midmorning and get a few acceptable shots. Like I said, they are a real challenge and they are fun. Glad to see you have devised techniques to get so many good shots. They are interesting creatures.
Thanks. Not as easy to identify as I thought.
Some impressive pictures here! Getting them in flight is quite the achievement. I have managed to get damsel flies stationery with the 60mm f/2.8 but have never tried capturing them in flight!
Challenging.
Some great shots there. I've only ever managed to capture them while resting.
They are a challange.
Super fun. In this type of situation I use manual focus, Pro Capture, and a remote release. After pre-focusing, I sit at a distance and just wait for the insect. Makes the wait much more comfortable and I don't have to be looking through the VF.
I use ProCapture SH1 rather than SH2 to get more captures/second. As you've pointed out, the movement is so fast that in a one second burst you aren't going to get many shots with the insect in the frame. The camera's C-AF won't be fast enough to focus so you're not giving up any advantage when not using SH2 and C-AF.
If you're shooting hovering insects and using C-AF for sure focus limiter, which you've illustrated in an earlier video, would be an advantage.
Thanks for your input.
Good video Mike. Are you using the focus limiter for these shots ? I tried doing them in flight at a reserve near me and I had trouble with the focus hunting on to the background.
I may have tried it over the weeks I was doing them, but generally no. Just prefocused at the right distance and waited for them to come into that range. If they are big enough in the frame then the focus stayed on them.
Thank you, Mike. I'm off dragon fly hunting, hoping for success.
They are still around.
Hello, very beautiful images and good explanations, after having been in Olimpus for 20 years and having moved to Nikon when I see your images I regret it but it's too late, too expensive but good luck and thank you
All cameras can produce good images. I would expect to very happy if I had a Nikon camera. Good light and time are the important things.
Great video Mike . During the late Summer I usually switch to Dragon & Butterflies for the same reasons you describe. I have just got insect detection on the latest Sony A6700 APS-C but haven't tried it yet . I am in the New Forest using Animal eye detect for Deer. Very good practice as you say for later Bird photography. I presume you mentioned pre-focus on a perch for inflight shots and I missed it . Even the Sony A1 struggles with Autofocus inflight with Dragonflies . My number one tip for inflight would be pre focus on something .
👍
Yes in the film I prefocus on a perch, but have Procapture to make it very easy.
I am still lacking that Procapture even on the Sony A6700. One day Sony might oblige 🙂@@MikeLaneFRPS
Great video (as usual :O) Have you tried stills from a high shutter speed video. I have tried with Sony 4K and get OK results
I have taken stills from 4k video, but not always certain of the shutter speed.
Thanks@@MikeLaneFRPS I have tried with a high ss video but get a nosier image (Sony A47R4 61mp are very noisy). Wondered if same on Olympus?
Not nosiy. I have a YT film on it. th-cam.com/video/jJLpU4W5L8M/w-d-xo.html
I am a little uncertain as to why you are referring to the shutter speed. That does not directly create noise. ISO and resolution such as 4K v HD. With your Sony at 4K and a low ISO I would not expect any noise.
@@NigelFairhurst
@@MikeLaneFRPS I've shot with high video shutter speed which to get correct exposure uses a high ISO, to freeze motion knowing I would take a screen grab
OH yes! I tried dragonflies in flight twice... :)
Hi Mike… my skill compared to yours is like painting by numbers compared to Picasso. I have a great camera and lens, and being retired all the time I want to practice, and still cannot come close to your success. But I am better at it by watching and following your videos which I appreciate very much.
Small fast birds catching insects is hard enough finding in the viewfinder with a long lens… erratic flying dragonflies to me was next to impossible. I had all but given up when came upon a small piece of equipment called a dot sight tracker. The one I purchased was the PGD tracker with a spreader base. Once calibrated it allows me to keep both eyes open and it is much easier to follow fast moving targets. I just place the dot on the bird or insect and fire away. With the new autofocus systems on our mirrorless cameras more often than not they grab focus. My success rate and increased tremendously… but still not as good as you…lol. But maybe something to look into for us less skilled frustrated photographers.
Ps…. I bet it will help shooting from a car in awkward positions.
Ess skilled
I have a youtube film on the dot sight, but once we had flickerless viewfinders I stopped using it. I have not sold it as I keep thinking there will be a situation I will need it.
I would like to see how the G9 Mk II handles this challenge
Great stuff, I'll be hoping you don't give Bob at Arden any stills of these because then he'll stop using mine! 😂👍
Bob did mention you, but I had not connected the name. I am having a go at Ragged Victorians tomorrow.
@@MikeLaneFRPS ok matey I'll see you there, maybe we could have a session out in the field sometime to get to know eachother 👍
Where do u get the camp covers for your lens please
I would have typed "neoprene lens covers" along with the lens type into Ebay. I do not know which company I choose, but maybe outdoorphotograpygear.
I used my EE dot sight this year for following the dragonflies it really improved my tracking.
Unfortunately it didn't improve the cameras autofocus 🤣👍
I stopped using the dot sight when we had flickerless viewfinders.
? , do you have bionic eye implants? 🙈 .... well done you 👍🏼
Not yet!
The Red eyed are in fact Small Red eyed Damsels
Thank you. There was some doubt on this one.