So one of the shots I've been trying to capture for a while is a dragonfly in flight. As you might expect, it isn't exactly the easiest thing to manage.

The most important thing I've learned is to observe the dragonflies for a while - turn the camera off and just watch. Try and identify a pattern; often dragonflies will repeatedly return to a certain landing point or hover in the same spot. You need to identify those places and prepare for your shot from there. Once you identify a place, setup your camera and compose your shot - don't worry about trying to capture anything just yet. Pay attention to your background, make sure that you won't have something distracting that will ruin the shot if you do end up getting one. Now, moving around and setting up your camera and tripod may very well have spooked the dragonfly. So you'll likely have to wait a bit longer for it to calm down and return to its pattern, but more than likely it will, so just be patient (ie: don't go moving the camera and starting over!). Finally, use a remote shutter release and shoot without using the viewfinder, just fire off bursts when the dragonfly nears the spot you are composes on. And of course, you'll need a faster shutter speed, which probably means a wide aperture.

That all said, I still haven't gotten a perfect dragonfly in flight shot yet. There's always something just a little bit off...

Sometimes I'm too early...

Or too late...

And sometimes I get close, but the focus is not perfect and the shutter speed is a little too slow to freeze the motion of the wings...

And sometimes even a bit closer still - focus is better but continues to not be perfect, but the faster shutter froze the motion of the wings a little better...

So I'm stick with it and keep trying. There are a few more things I'll be keeping in mind next time I'm shooting for one of these. First, I'll try manually focusing on a spot and avoid using auto-focus. Also, I'll make sure I just default to the largest aperture right off the bat to speed up the shutter (and maybe go with a higher ISO). And if possible, I'll get the lighting a little better to brighten up the wings - in the last shot, since they're frozen, they almost disappear - having a bit of highlight lighting on them would help to accentuate the wings and avoid capturing a floating dragonfly body. Perhaps a flash unit would help, but so far I am still nervous about using flash.

It is a challenging shot, that's for sure, but then again - I am not stranger to elusive and challenging shots.

- Bill

PS: Here's the technical data for all of the shots above:

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Sigma 150-500mm f/5-6.3 APO DG OS HSM at 500mm, 1/330 sec at f/9.9 (first three shots) and 1/1020 as f/6.4 (last shot). OS mode 1. ISO 200. Dolica AX620B100 tripod mounted. No post production. Raccoon Creek State Park, Beaver County, PA.