jessicabailey

Dragonfly_

Canon EOS REBEL T3

settings

Aperture f/5.6 ISO 100 Shutter 1/500 Focal Length 250/1

upload_date

Aug, 2015

Views

261

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very nice !

Thank you :) love dragonflies :) just never been able to capture a good photo till now :)

Thank you

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Same photographer See all Behind The Lens

Behind The Lens

Location

This photo was taken at a small lake outside the town of Wheatland Wyoming, during an outing with my 5 yr old son. We were playing around snapping shots of the lake when a group of blue dragonflies zipped by us. Just like that my son was off chasing dragonflies and i had found my subject to photograph and followed quickly behind.

Time

I was able to get this photo during my favorite time to go out to the lake, late afternoons, when everyone else is done for the day and nature comes out to play.

Lighting

With the sun behind the clouds the lighting was just beyond perfect no harsh shadows or bright spots and yet just light enough to still be able capture the beautiful color in the dragonfly.

Equipment

This shot was done with a Canon Rebel T3 camera using a EF-S55-250mm F/4-5.6 IS II telephoto lens, no other equipment was needed or used during this shot.

Inspiration

My inspiration was the curiosity of my little boy. He really wanted to get a look at the dragonflies, but wasn't able to quite get close enough. So to help him get a good look i used my 55-250mm lens and started snapping photos. I kept my distance as not to disturb the dragon fly and when we were done i had gotten some pretty good shots that really showed what the dragonflies looked like up close. All in all i was beyond pleased, my son was happy and i myself ended up with some good photos to share.

Editing

This photo did not need much post-processing, i did run it through Lightroom 5.4 once, usually with nature photos i run them through twice just to tweek things a bit after the first edit. During the time in Lightroom i wanted to really make sure the dragonfly popped, i upped the contrast just tiny bit, enough to make the blacks black which brought the blue color out and helped separate the subject from the lighter background. I then did a bit of sharpening with about 50- 60 in the masking so it didn't cause a lot of unwanted noise. On almost all my nature shots I adjust the temperature a little to the warm side as to give the photo a nice glow, in this one i also adjusted the vibrancy up to really bring out the blue, other than that there was no other post-processing really needed. It was a good shot with great depth and color and i didn't wanna really change much on it so i just adjusted a few things as to help bring out my subject a bit more.

In my camera bag

I do not carry a lot of items with me due to the fact that a lot of my photos i take are on outing with my 5 yr old and being weighed down is definitely not an option. On these trips i usually carry my Camera body, Canon rebel T3, and two lenses, one is my ESF 55-250mm telephoto lens and the other is more standard lens my ESF 18-55mm.

Feedback

The best advice i can give for getting a photo like this is have patients, they move fast and if you disturb them they will be gone in a blink of an eye. Be adventurous go out and explore if you have kids let them lead you to an adventure. Last have fun while shooting there is nothing better than capturing that perfect candid moment and know you were having fun while in doing so, no worries, no loads of equipment just you your camera and nature.

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Dragonfly_

Behind The Lens

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