Seeing 2011 (#120)

(Note: this posting is an update to correct an error from the original text, which incorrectly stated a wingspan of seven feet for ancient dragonflies.)

For your consideration: a seemingly-annual visitor to the intimate confines of the man-made pond at my semi-secret meditation spot.

Last year I photographed either this returnee or an identical (recent) ancestor in the same general location; the differences this year are the vast leap of crispness and high-ISO shooting capabilities of the 7D which permit faster shutter speeds and smaller apertures, yielding (in theory) sharper images with greater depth-of-field. For macro work especially, these are two vital components.

Acquiring this degree of magnification required remaining precariously perched on a small boulder for long periods while remaining essentially motionless: this flighty creature made repeated reconnaissance sorties in its local airspace, buzzing my vicinity to test the threat level I posed. Wanting a shot like this required sitting as still as possible for much longer than I would have liked, but perseverance has its rewards.

While observing my observer between shots I had the time to gratefully consider my good fortune to have been born in the 20th Century: had this critter's prehistoric kin survived their own journey into Modern Times I would be as deeply entrenched in a safe haven as I could squeeze my pudgy body — this subject's ancestors, have wingspans of up to two-plus feet across.

Dragonfly, #0821-7D

© 2011 James W. Murray, all rights reserved.

(click image for larger version)

Details: July 23, 2011; Canon 7D; f/18 @ 1/256 sec; —1/3 EV; ISO 500; Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM

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