Image specs: Olympus E-3, f11, 1/180, ISO 500, Zuiko Digital 50mm f2.0 Macro + EC-20 2 x teleconverter, white balance auto, manual exposure, manual focus with live view 7x, natural mode, image stabilizer, hand-held, afternoon, overcast, curves. River Kwai, Kanchanaburi, Thailand.
Image specs: Olympus E-3, f16, 1/150, ISO 320, Zuiko Digital 50mm f2.0 Macro + EC-20 2 x teleconverter, white balance auto, manual exposure, manual focus with live view 7x, natural mode, image stabilizer, hand-held, bright midday overhead sun, curves. River Kwai, Kanchanaburi, Thailand.
Damselflies and dragonflies are excellent macro subjects.
Ideally, you’d plant yourself either in the water or in a boat, camouflaged, with camera set up on a tripod ready to shoot. This works because you’ll notice dragonflies tend to return to favoured grass stems or leaves. In this instance I’m on the riverbank and I spent time looking for the popular perches and set up my camera accordingly, keeping a low profile.
The scorching midday sun made these extremely tough shots to capture with my available 50mm macro and 2x teleconverter. The subject matter was a metre out from the bank and I opted to hand hold the camera to give me the freedom to compose and shoot before taking a break from my efforts every 3 or 4 minutes. The live view enabled me to shoot at arms length but this is a strenuous technique to say the least.
Image specs: Olympus E-3, f16, 1/125, ISO 800, Zuiko Digital 50mm f2.0 Macro + EC-20 2 x teleconverter, white balance auto, manual exposure, manual focus with live view 7x, natural mode, image stabilizer, hand-held, bright midday overhead sun, curves. River Kwai, Kanchanaburi, Thailand.
Your choice of lens will, of course determine how close your are able to focus and the scale of enlargement in the frame. The images above keep the subject in some perspective, showing some background, which adds an extra splash of colour and information.
© Warren Field 2012
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