damselfly

Ebony Jewelwing /  by Todd Henson

A male ebony jewelwing damselfly

Sometimes you really have to work to get even a mediocre photograph of a subject. That happened with this one, an ebony jewelwing damselfly. We were hiking through the woods when we turned right onto one of the dirt roads that led back to the car. Not far along that section of wooded road I noticed this very dark damselfly, one I don’t recall seeing before. Every other damselfly I’d seen had mostly clear wings, but this one’s were black. And the body was a beautiful metallic blue. At the time I had no idea what specific species it was so I went about capturing some photographs hoping it was unique enough to allow easy identification later (it was).

This particular damselfly appeared a bit jumpy and I didn’t have a very long lens with me, just my 105mm macro lens. So I attempted to slowly approach it a number of times and almost each time it would fly off just as I got close enough to get a decent photo. But eventually we were able to work together. I moved slowly enough and perhaps it became used to my presence. So I have this single image to share of the ebony jewelwing perched atop a blade of grass.

This particular individual happens to be a male, which have the metallic blue body and all black wings. The female is more of a brown color and has white spots at the tips of the wings. Like all damselflies this one was a fast mover, quickly flying from one perch to another, very difficult to follow in flight with the camera. I have done that before with some larger dragonflies but it’s very much a challenge, and one I didn’t succeed at this time around.

The trail was somewhat dark and I had to handhold to follow the damselfly so I set my ISO high, to 1250. I had a reasonably open aperture, f/5, giving me a shutter speed of 1/2500 second. When it landed it tended to stay reasonably still, so I might have gotten away with a slower shutter speed and a lower ISO (for less noise) or smaller aperture (for more depth of field), but I didn’t want to risk it and didn’t have a lot of time to think through changing settings. There is some noise, but I think it works perfectly fine as a natural history sort of image to show you an example of this magnificent species.

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7 Tips For Photographing Insects And Other Little Crawly Things /  by Todd Henson

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Photographing close-ups of insects, spiders, and other little creepy crawly slithery creatures can sometimes be a challenge. But with a little know how and lots of patience and practice it’s possible to create some really pleasing images. Below are 7 tips for creating more successful close-up images.

1. Move slowly to avoid startling the insect or creature. Some insects and creatures are very skittish and will move or flee if they see sudden movement around them.

2. Use a telephoto lens to give yourself working distance. This will also help avoid startling the creatures. The photo of the pair of familiar bluet damselflies was shot with a 105mm macro lens. Sometimes I use longer focal lengths, such as 200mm, 400mm, or more.

Pair of damselfly photographed with a 105mm macro lens.

3. Try to position the camera’s focal plane (effectively the back of the camera) parallel to the subject. This will help keep more of the subject in focus.  Telephoto and macro lenses tend to create shallower depth of field, so keeping the camera parallel to the subject assures as much of the subject as possible is within the acceptable depth of field. In the photo of the damselflies the camera was positioned parallel to the pair, allowing me to capture as much of them in focus as possible.

Notice how little of the snake is in focus. The camera is not parallel to the body of the snake.

Notice how much more of the snake is in focus now that the camera is parallel to the body of the snake.

4. Stop down the aperture (use larger f-stop numbers) to increase depth of field enough to capture as much of the insect in focus as you want. As mentioned, telephoto and macro lenses tend to create shallower depth of field, so stopping down helps increase the depth of field.  But watch your shutter speed as you stop down. If you stop down too much you’ll get a very slow shutter speed and risk a blurry photo.

This assassin bug was shot at f/3.5, a very wide open aperture, using my 105mm macro lens. Notice the very shallow depth of field.

This time the assassin bug was shot at f/14, a much smaller aperture, again using my 105mm macro lens. Notice the much greater depth of field.

5. Increase the ISO, only if necessary, to get a fast enough shutter speed to capture a sharp image. If you increase the ISO too much you may see increased noise in the image, depending on your camera model. But a little extra noise is usually better than a blurry image.

6. Use a tripod, if possible, to help keep the camera steady. This will help create a sharp image, provided the shutter speed is fast enough to freeze any motion in the scene. In some cases it may be better to hand-hold, especially if the insect or creature is moving and you’re trying to track it.

7. Shoot in short bursts, especially if you’re unable to get the shutter speed fast enough, or are shooting hand-held. This can increase the chance of getting a sharp image. Sometimes one of the images in a burst will be sharper than the others. You can delete the others, if you don’t want them.

So grab your camera and give these techniques a try. Go out there looking for damselflies, snakes, or any other insect, creature, or flower you’d like, and create some beautiful images.

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Pair of Familiar Bluet Damselfly Mating /  by Todd Henson

Pair of Familiar Bluet Damselfly mating

Damselflies have a fascinating method of mating, as seen in this image of a mating pair of Familiar Bluet damselflies. The male damselfly is blue and the female is green. The male produces sperm in an organ near the end of its abdomen, on the underside. It then curls its abdomen and transfers the sperm to a secondary organ at the other end its abdomen, again on the underside, just behind the shoulder and wings (notice where the end of the female’s abdomen is attached to the male in the image).

After the male has attracted a female it clasps the female behind her head using claspers on the very end of its abdomen. The female curls her abdomen segments, attaching the rear of her abdomen to the male’s secondary organ where it deposited its sperm. They form an interesting patten when attached to one another. I’ve seen them perched this way on branches, as in the image, and I’ve also seen them sometimes fly together in tandem. It’s an amazing sight.

Later the female will remove her abdomen from the male and deposit her eggs somewhere, typically on submerged vegetation. The male usually continues to clasp the female while she deposits her eggs.

I love observing behaviors of various species in nature. There are such varied, and sometimes complex, behaviors out there, it never grows old, and there’s always more to see and more to learn. This is an example of why it’s important to re-visit the same locations throughout the year. You can observe different behaviors at different times.

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