STEALTHILY DOES IT!
A careful approach and creative shallow
depth-of-field produce a stunning show
with a lovely, flattering background.
Exposure: 1/1250sec at f/5.6 (ISO 800)CHALLENGE 2: BEHAVIOUR
For the next challenge, I wanted Chris to
capture some degree of behaviour – maybe
predation, flight or, if we were lucky, an
insect emergence. I also ideally wanted
Chris to shoot a different type of insect
for each of the three challenges – not
only for variety, but to provide him with an
additional challenge. Therefore, after lunch,
we visited a second reserve, renowned for
itsabundanceofdragonflies.However,
afteranhourorso,Chrishadbarelytaken
a photo– andthroughnofaultofhisown.
Wehadbarelyseenanydragonflyactivity.
Why?Thewindyconditionsmayhave
playeda part,butcloudhadnowrolledin
andthetemperaturehaddipped.I suspect
anydragonflieswereinactiveandsheltering
outofsightin vegetationhighup.In fact,
asweexploredthereserve,wefoundvery
fewpotentialsubjectsandthosethatwe
didweren’tsettlingorlandingin positions
suitedtophotography.Thatis oneofthebig
frustrationswithinsectphotography– you
havenocontroloverwhere(orif) your
subjectlands,itsbackgroundorlighting.
Youjusthavetobepatientandtakeyour
opportunitieswhentheycomealong.
Dragonflieswerealmostnonexistent,as
werebeetles,bugsandbutterflies– overall,
a worryinglackof subjects.However,wedid
continueto seeplentyof damselfliesand
thereforeChrishadnochoicebutto switch
hisattentionto them.Hewasn’tcomplaining
though,astheymakewonderfulsubjects
withtheiriridescentbodiesanddelicate
wings.However,capturinganelement
of behaviourwasn’tgoingto beeasy.We
searchedthewater’sedgeforanyhatching
damsels,butit wasa littlelatein theday.
Wedidseea numberof matingpairs,
though,whichprovidedanobviouschoice.
Includingtwoinsectsin oneshotrequires
superbtechnique.In orderto captureboth
insectssharpthroughout,thecameramust
bepositionedperfectlyparallelto them,
otherwise– dueto theshallowzoneof
focus– oneortheotherwillbeslightlyoff
thefocalplaneanddriftannoyinglyout
of focus.I explainedto Christhatcameraplacement would be key and he needed to
waituntil both insects appeared sharp in the
viewfinder before triggering the shutter.
Atfirst Chris again struggled to get near
enough to subjects. While a degree of
cropping is perfectly acceptable, if your
subject is recorded too small in the frame,
youhave to discard too many pixels during
processing, which reduces image quality.
I encouraged Chris to be patient and get
physically closer to his subjects and then
wait.It wasn’t long before he found a pair
thatclearly had other things on their mind,
andChris was able to get up close and
personal with his camera. From the side-
lines, I encouraged Chris to take a sequence
offrames, and experiment with aperture
choice, in order to ‘get the shot’. Absolute
precision is required to take a shot such as
thiswithout the aid of a tripod, yet Chris –
despite his relative inexperience – bagged
a couple of fantastic images.
After crawling around in the undergrowth
fora couple of hours, and with soggy knees
fromkneeling close to the water’s edge,
wedecided it was time for a break before
driving to our third and final reserve.The (^) Photo Workshop
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72 Digital SLR Photography October 2019
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