holding hands
a damselfly sitting on a human hand
a damselfly sitting on a human hand
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Aug, 2023Views
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Awards
Contender in the Photography Awards
People's Choice in Shallow Depth Photo Contest 2023
Honorable Mention in Monthly Pro Photo Contest Volume50
Peer Award
Absolute Masterpiece
Top Choice
Superb Composition
Outstanding Creativity
Top Ranks
Top 30 rank week 1
Top 10 rank
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Top 10 rank
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Behind The Lens
Location
I took this photo in Northern India where I was traveling with Dheerendra Singh Chahar (you can see his hand), who is a specialist and knows every dragonfly or damselfly in India. Actually he wrote a book about it. We saw 31 different species in 3 days. It was so much fun, so amazing.Time
It was in the early afternoon on a very cloudy, humid day.Lighting
Well, somebody had played with my camera and changed the ISO setting. This photo was taken with an ISO of 4000. I never do that. But given the high ISO the photo turned out quite clear. A shutter of 1/3200 helped, of course.Equipment
I used a Nikon D5, no flash, no tripod.Inspiration
I love damsel- and dragonflies. They are among the oldest living creatures in evolution. Their flying technique is so unique and skilled. As raptors they have a much higher success rate than lions or cheetah. They catch their prey with a 90 % success rate, I read somewhere. And they are so beautiful.Editing
I used the sharpening function in lightroom a little.In my camera bag
I carry my Nikon D5 and a Leica Mono at times. I do not use zoom lenses so much, mostly fixed focus lenses (from macro up to 600 mm), which very often requires a tripod.Feedback
Well, for dragonfly photography it helps to understand, how they behave. It is fun to watch them for a while. Some of them return all the time to the same place, which makes it easier to take a picture. Some of them fly around all the time. Eventually, however, they will rest for a moment. I sometimes try to convince them to sit on my fingert, to shake hands with me. If one moves slowly toward them, that very often works. They do not live very long. During the summer time one can see different species almost every week. They really like it hot, they like the sunlight.
