This is a great shot and I think difficult to achieve because he is moving. I'm curious about the technique you used because he is in flight yet so sharp. At 200mm was this handheld or on tripod? Was he moving forward and you were panning? The blurred background doesn't look like panning. Or was he hovering & stationary in flight? Did you use spot focus, continuous or manual?
Lots of questions so I can learn lol

Actually I was waiting for him to face me so I could catch him with wings wide spread. He was buzzing all over the place and because he was always changing direction the hardest part was to find him in the viewfinder - especially with lens yet to focus. I noticed that dragonflies appear to be territorial and they somehow always come to the same spot. So when I "disturbed" him he made a few threatening circles, barely avoiding me at the very last split of a second - I pre-focused the lens to the distance where I thought I could catch him in flight (still in spot focus) - he comes, turns around, pauses for a fraction of a second, and zap! - I got him! I managed about three of those in some 5-10 minutes, all hand-held, but this one was the bets so far. Now I know where they live, so maybe next weekend I show up earlier at the spot, ;)
Thanks for looking and commenting,

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Very good ! Regards Sergio

I'm very impressed with this, the detail and colour is amazing and beautifully isolated from the background, the blured wings give a sense of movement.
Cheers Steve

Wow!!!
This is a great shot Sergey, well done.
I am also curios about your camerasettings (Program-, iso-and ligthmetermode).
Thanks for sharing,
Hans.

Very difficult subject beautifully shot Sergey. I've tried the same thing many times, but so far without success.
Regards
Ray

Sergey, I am impressed.....regards bevellee

This is a winner of course, superb.... well done.
I know how hard it is to get these Dragonflies in flight, you did excellent by the way you discribed to catch this one...
Hope to see a few more of these beautiful insects..


Best regards,

Excellent shot Sergey! Everyone who tried this before can appreciate how hard it is to get shots like this. I barely succeeded catching dragonflies with my C-7070, but i guess its even harder with the more bulky E500, but then, the focus of the slr's is faster? Anyway - a great image!
Regards, Dietrich

Great shot, everything is already said, but also compliments from me!! I'd like you to know about some other dragonflies fans, take a look at there sites, also very beautiful......
www.mplonsky.com/photo/ (amazing shots)
www.jeroenstel.com (dutch guy, went to his workshop once, also a fan of dragonflies. So enjoy!!!

Best Regards, Toziena

This is one fantastic shot. You should be very proud of it.

Jim

Jim Sabatke wrote:
> This is one fantastic shot. You should be very proud of it.
>
> Jim
>

I am proud of many things, Jim, ;) thanks for your comment.

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