Steve Berardi over at PhotoNaturalist recently made available a free 18-page e-book written by his Father, Vic Berardi, titled “How to Photograph Dragonflies“. In my 30 years of shooting, I’ve never photographed dragonflies, so I figured I would give it a try. The e-book gave some good starting pointers on equipment to take into the field along with some exposure and focus guidelines. There were also sections on composition and dragonfly behavior.
With my newfound knowledge, I headed over to Rock Cut State Park in Loves Park, Illinois. There’s a restored prairie in the park with a small pond in the middle and a footbridge going across. With my tripod set up on the footbridge and my 70-300 mm lens mounted on my Nikon D80, I started shooting dragonflies. I actually found the photography aspects of shooting dragonflies straightforward enough. I set my camera for ISO 200 with manual exposure and used the f/16 rule inside my head for metering. When shooting small things, I don’t always trust my light meter. Based on Vic’s recommendations in his e-book, it looked like he was dead on with the f/16 rule as well.
The big challenges I encountered out there were dealing with the wind, getting the dragonflies in focus, and predicting where the dragonflies would land. The wind would pick up from time to time as thermals blew through the area. It’s hard to keep the dragonflies in focus when they are blowing all over the place. Basically, I would just stop shooting and wait it out. I was using strictly manual focus, which makes it easier to get the eyes sharp. But at times, it was difficult to get the dragonflies in the frame and focused before they were airborne again. As far as predicting where the dragonflies would be, after a half-hour or so, I pretty well figured out that they each had preferred landing spots. So once I knew their behavior, it was easy to be ready for them.
All in all, I’m pretty pleased with my first attempts at shooting dragonflies. I’m looking forward to getting out a few more times this summer to try it again. Hopefully, pick up a few other species of dragonflies. If you have any interest in trying your hand at photographing dragonflies, then check out Vic Berardi’s free e-book over at PhotoNaturalist.