Into the Eyes of a Dragon.
On Saturday I took another visit to Ramsdown, near Hurn in Bournemouth. The day was not too warm and there was a fair breeze blowing so there was a lack of butterflies when compared to my last visit to Ramsdown. I think this was because the temperature was below what they like, in addition there weren’t as many basking dragonflies. However I did come across a couple of hanging yellow dragonflies.. These were Cordulegaster boltonii – Golden-ringed Dragonfly, which I had identified on UK Dragonflies.com
I was also trying out a cross-polarization flash technique that I’d read about on NatureScapes.net. I’ll detail more about my experiences with it once I’ve tried it out a bit more.
The last shot below taken on my Canon 100mm lens shows the full length of the dragonfly, which I took first in case it flew off. The first few are taken on my Canon MPE-65mm lens at between 1 and 2x magnification of the dragons eyes. All shots used the flash cross-polarization technique.
Canon EOS 50D (65mm, f/11, 1/250 sec, ISO400)The eyes of the dragonfly, taken on MPE-65mm, is the highest magnification shot of the series. I very slightly cropped the LHS by about 10 pixels to improve the composition. On reflection I think it could do with a touch more to centralize the dragonfly. Normally I would off centre a subject, but on this occasion I think it merits being plumb centre.
Canon EOS 50D (65mm, f/11, 1/250 sec, ISO400)Landscape shot of the dragonfly’s head taken on MPE-65mm.
Canon EOS 50D (65mm, f/13, 1/250 sec, ISO400)Portrait shot of the Dragonfly’s head.
Canon EOS 50D (65mm, f/10, 1/250 sec, ISO400)This shot shows a bit more of the dragonfly’s body.
Canon EOS 50D (100mm, f/9, 1/250 sec, ISO400)The whole of the dragonfly taken on the 100mm.
Map of Location
Off road parking is available here.
