Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Life Cycle

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Dragonflies at MoBot 5

A water lily bud, floating in black water, barely breaking open. A neon dragonfly finds sustenance within it. I know little about plant biology. Do the dragonflies benefit the plant as bees do when they spread pollen from one flower to another?

A couple of commentators to yesterday's post said they liked the macro work but these aren't macro shots at all. They were taken with a 100-400 mm zoom at 400 mm, f 5.6, 1/200 sec., ISO 200 on a Canon 7D, which has a 1.6 crop factor. Then they were cropped a bit more in the computer. Not nearly as sharp as I'd like but that's what you get with even a good telephoto zoom compared to a prime lens. The final image was heavily massaged in Photoshop but I care about the destination, not the route.
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11 comments:

  1. OlivierJuly 26, 2011 at 12:46 AM

    "but I care about the destination, not the route."

    "Qu'importe le flacon, pourvu qu'on ait l'ivresse" A. de Musset
    Tu as bien raison, ce qui compte c'est le résultat et que tu sois content de ta photo

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  2. cieldequimperJuly 26, 2011 at 1:20 AM

    Wow, Olivier is very good today.
    This little gourd is precious!


    Peckish, Monty Python...well in England's English it means to be hungry...

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  3. PerthDailyPhotoJuly 26, 2011 at 1:23 AM

    I can only assume there must be benefits to both dragonfly and water lily Bob, everything in nature seems to work that way, if only we humans could work the same way. I really thought you had used a macro lens, nice work with the zoom! Secondly there is no way even if my life depended (well I guess extreme circumstance..) would I go through that there tunnel in Switzerland, thanks for the tip off haha!

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  4. JillyJuly 26, 2011 at 1:47 AM

    Two very nice images, Bob. Like you I prefer street photography but sometimes it's fun to photograph nature. I love this and that it's half in and half out of water, not tomention the dragonfly. Very nice as I said.

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  5. brattcatJuly 26, 2011 at 6:21 AM

    love this entire composition. the dragonfly is like a laser light. the unopened blossom like some alien paw. color, texture, shape all come together so beautifully in this.

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  6. Pedro D. H.July 26, 2011 at 7:44 AM

    this dragonfly is spectacular!

    Great shot!

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  7. Bill C.July 26, 2011 at 11:59 AM

    Great photo in St. Louis!

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  8. SharonJuly 26, 2011 at 12:39 PM

    This one is gorgeous! Very nice work! I love playing with photos in the software. I'm using Corel Paintshop Pro right now but, might switch to Photoshop after I have completed my conversion to MAC from PC.

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  9. glamaziniJuly 26, 2011 at 1:44 PM

    Nice.

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  10. nathalieJuly 28, 2011 at 7:27 AM

    I love your whole dragonfly series but this particular shot with the half open bud and the water rising up is very special.

    I look forward to the new material you'll be gathering at the weekend. Happy shooting !

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  11. MerryAugust 22, 2011 at 8:07 PM

    Hi Bob, Wow, I love this. Have a grand time on vacation. We're looking forward to the photo results. Mer and Ed

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