Category: Indiana Dunes Trails

Damsels & Dragons

Posted on by MC2 · Leave a comment

When you spend a lot of time hiking around marshes and swamps you are going to see a lot of Damselflies and Dragonflies. They are a lot of fun to watch, the way they hover and dart to and fro. It is amazing how quickly they can change direction. They look prehistoric and indeed they date back to the Jurassic period. While they might look scary, they are harmless to people and spend most of their time eating other more bothersome insects like mosquitos.

They are a lot of fun to photograph as well. Despite how frenetic they can be in flight, they often hover in place for short periods. They also land on leaves and sticks, remaining incredibly still long enough to photograph. They can see almost 360 degrees and are very difficult to get close to as any approach tends to spook them. However with a good telephoto lens you can get some really nice shots of them. The secret is to just stop and wait quietly when you come across them. If you stay very still they will go about their business and eventually land nearby.

This post contains a selection of the different Damselflies and Dragonflies which I have photographed over the last few years. I cannot really identify different types, but I choose photographs of subjects bearing different colors and patterns just to showcase the variety. Most were taken at the Indiana Dunes park in NW Indiana. A few were from my neighborhood in Chicago near Lake Michigan.

Damselflies are smaller and more slender than Dragonflies. The easiest way to tell the difference however is to note that Damselflies, like those pictured here, fold their wings back along their bodies when at rest.
Dragonflies by contrast rest with their wings extended. Notice the variety in the markings on their wings.
Their faces are fascinating. The eyes are huge, like wrap around goggles. Their mouths are almost always closed, but if you watch them carefully you will see them occasionally open up wide, and it looks like the entire top of the head hinges back.
Mating pairs are always fun to watch. The male clasps the female just behind the head and they fly together in perfect tandem.
See all those black spots in the sky? Those are Dragonflies at sunset. This photograph was taken out at Promontory Point, along the shore of Lake Michigan one year when they were really intense.
Dragonflies love to perch like this, grasping the top of a leaf or reed, calmly surveying their domain.
This is typical Damselfly posture when at rest.
Reds, Blues, Blacks, Yellows and Greens. Petty much the whole spectrum of colors can be found.
And, well just a bunch more to round out the show.

Vantage Points

Posted on by MC2 · Leave a comment

One of the things which I spend more and more time doing is contemplating vantage points. Given the subject, where do I want to place the camera so that I can get an image which I like. For the kind of up close nature photography that I enjoy, two of the primary considerations are the Plane of Focus, and the background. Close up (macro) photography results in very narrow depth of focus, so you have to consider carefully what you want to appear in focus. The background of your subject plays a couple of important roles. One is the overall color and brightness and how that interacts with the subject. Another is proximity of objects in the background. Objects close to the subject will be less out of focus and blurry as compared to more distant objects.

These images illustrate some of my choices. They were taken in mid June on the West Beach and Dune Ridge trails in the Indiana Dunes National Park.

I wanted an overhead shot of this Eastern Prickley Pear flower, which meant that the ground and the rest of the cactus were not going to be very far away. To better highlight the flower I used a large aperture to create as narrow a depth of focus as I could.
I wanted an overhead shot of this Eastern Prickley Pear flower, which meant that the ground and the rest of the cactus were not going to be very far away. To better highlight the flower I used a large aperture to create as narrow a depth of focus as I could.
I wanted an overhead shot of this Eastern Prickley Pear flower, which meant that the ground and the rest of the cactus were not going to be very far away. To better highlight the flower I used a large aperture to create as narrow a depth of focus as I could.
Here is another example where I choose to use a very narrow depth of focus. The bright red color of these galls (the “warts” you sometimes see on leaves) and the fact that they were lined up in an almost perfect straight line strongly suggested this vantage point.
Here is another example where I choose to use a very narrow depth of focus. The bright red color of these galls (the “warts” you sometimes see on leaves) and the fact that they were lined up in an almost perfect straight line strongly suggested this vantage point.
Here is another example where I choose to use a very narrow depth of focus. The bright red color of these galls (the “warts” you sometimes see on leaves) and the fact that they were lined up in an almost perfect straight line strongly suggested this vantage point.
Here is an example where I wanted as much depth of field as I could get, in order to have as many of the hairs on the buds crisp and sharp as possible. In this case I choose to back up a little bit from the plant, which helps increase the apparent depth of focus, and used a fairly small aperture. Small apertures maximize depth of focus, but they also restrict the amount of light which reaches the sensor and that has to be balanced out by reducing the shutter speed. Plants and insects are almost always moving at least a little bit, so motion blur comes into play when you use longer exposures. This however is a fairly sizable and heavy enough plant that it was barely moving in the light breeze of that day.
Here is an example where I wanted as much depth of field as I could get, in order to have as many of the hairs on the buds crisp and sharp as possible. In this case I choose to back up a little bit from the plant, which helps increase the apparent depth of focus, and used a fairly small aperture. Small apertures maximize depth of focus, but they also restrict the amount of light which reaches the sensor and that has to be balanced out by reducing the shutter speed. Plants and insects are almost always moving at least a little bit, so motion blur comes into play when you use longer exposures. This however is a fairly sizable and heavy enough plant that it was barely moving in the light breeze of that day.
Here is an example where I wanted as much depth of field as I could get, in order to have as many of the hairs on the buds crisp and sharp as possible. In this case I choose to back up a little bit from the plant, which helps increase the apparent depth of focus, and used a fairly small aperture. Small apertures maximize depth of focus, but they also restrict the amount of light which reaches the sensor and that has to be balanced out by reducing the shutter speed. Plants and insects are almost always moving at least a little bit, so motion blur comes into play when you use longer exposures. This however is a fairly sizable and heavy enough plant that it was barely moving in the light breeze of that day.

Another example where the interesting elements are arrayed in a line, with the unopened blossoms bracketed by the open ones. The subject was a good 15 feet off the trail so that helped with depth of focus. The fact that it was in bring light allowed me to stop down the aperture without having to sacrifice shutter speed. The background foliage was a good ways behind the subject which produced a pleasing smooth blurring effect.
Another example where the interesting elements are arrayed in a line, with the unopened blossoms bracketed by the open ones. The subject was a good 15 feet off the trail so that helped with depth of focus. The fact that it was in bring light allowed me to stop down the aperture without having to sacrifice shutter speed. The background foliage was a good ways behind the subject which produced a pleasing smooth blurring effect.
Another example where the interesting elements are arrayed in a line, with the unopened blossoms bracketed by the open ones. The subject was a good 15 feet off the trail so that helped with depth of focus. The fact that it was in bring light allowed me to stop down the aperture without having to sacrifice shutter speed. The background foliage was a good ways behind the subject which produced a pleasing smooth blurring effect.
Another example of a subject where the relative distances allowed me to create two background layers, each nicely blurred.
Another example of a subject where the relative distances allowed me to create two background layers, each nicely blurred.
Another example of a subject where the relative distances allowed me to create two background layers, each nicely blurred.