Sunday, 27 May 2012

Large Red Damselflies (Meet Your Neighbours)

I recently posted about the emergence of Large Red Damselflies (including video, see here) and noted that this year I have been lucky enough to observe the emergence of several damselflies. I decided to photograph one emergence sequence in the Meet Your Neighbours style, with the idea of a composite image showing the various stages of the process firmly in my mind.

The final composite image is below:

PLEASE CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE




...and here's a closer look at one of the images




on this occasion I didn't have time to wait around until the damselfly's colours had fully developed (it can take several hours) but here's a different, mature, individual for comparison.



and, again, a closer view



Finally, a view of my rough and ready 'field studio' (if that isn't too grand a term for it)! I'm using white Perspex with a flash positioned behind it and a macro flash attached to the lens. I found the trickiest aspect is keeping the Perspex held vertically but settled on a combination of a Plamp and a couple of bamboo canes which seemed to do the job nicely.




All images were taken handheld using a Canon 60mm macro lens.
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6 comments:

  1. Pip29 May 2012 at 09:49

    Thanks, Matt.
    Really enjoying your blog, your work is amazing.
    Best Wishes

    ReplyDelete
  2. Matt Cole29 May 2012 at 11:51

    thanks very much Pip, much appreciated.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Roy30 May 2012 at 09:41

    Really inspired by your work, stunning images and blogs, did you use a diffuser on the camera flash?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Matt Cole30 May 2012 at 09:45

    many thanks Roy. Yes, I used my MT-24 macro flash which was diffused in the manner described in my macro flash diffusion post below:

    http://mattcolephotography.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/macro-flash-diffusion.html

    ReplyDelete
  5. Adrian Thysse3 June 2012 at 12:36

    Beautiful images Matt! The clarity is amazing. I dread having to add more items to my camera bag, but I feel I must try this 'Meet Your Neighbours' technique someday.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Matt Cole3 June 2012 at 14:43

    thanks Adrian, and you have accurately identified the downside of the MYN technique! I'm thinking of investing in a packhorse... :-)

    ReplyDelete

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