{"id":418,"date":"2011-06-06T12:53:29","date_gmt":"2011-06-05T23:53:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.neilfitzgeraldphoto.co.nz\/new\/?p=418"},"modified":"2017-01-05T21:24:01","modified_gmt":"2017-01-05T09:24:01","slug":"red-percher-dragonfly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.neilfitzgeraldphoto.co.nz\/new\/2011\/red-percher-dragonfly\/","title":{"rendered":"Red percher dragonfly"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I spent a few days in Northland last month photographing for a magazine article (more on that later). As is so often the norm for nature photographers, I was up before first light searching for an interesting subject, and hoping for nice light. It had been a wet start to autumn, so the ephemeral Lake Ohia was high, and after a cool clear night mist rose gently from the water surface. Careful planning and preparation had me comfortably in warm waders, so I was able to concentrate on photography.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"figure mx-auto\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"figure-img img-fluid\" alt=\"Red percher\" title=\"Red percher dragonfly (Diplacodes bipunctata).\" src=\"\/images\/red-percher-dragonfly_14725.jpg\" \/><figcaption class=\"figure-caption\">Red percher dragonfly (<i>Diplacodes bipunctata<\/i>) covered with drops of dew at sunrise. Taken with a Canon 1D Mark IV, EF180mm f\/3.5L macro, 0.4 second exposure at f22, ISO 200.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>As the world brightened, it became clear that the clouds were too few and in the wrong place for the stunning sunrise landscape I was hoping for, so I had to take a closer look at what I had to work with. I noticed spider webs and insects adorned with beads of dew hanging from sedges, torpid in the cool morning air. I worked to find a dragonfly that I could get a clear view of. I wanted to use the natural soft light of sunrise, so a tripod was mandatory to prevent camera shake at the required slow shutter speed. I had to carefully position the legs of the tripod, trying not to disturb the subject. With close-up photography, camera movements of just a few millimeters can completely change a composition, so this was a delicate process. My 180 mm macro lens gave me a little more working room compared to shorter macro lenses, and the narrower field of view allowed me to create a less cluttered background\u2014both very useful in a fragile tangle of vegetation like this. As the first rays of sunlight lit the lake I worked quickly to make as many different images as possible\u2014backlit, direct front lighting, even swapping the macro lens for a wide angle to include more of the surroundings. You can see some of them in my <a href=\"\/gallery\/index.php\/category\/dragonflies-and-damselflies\">dragonfly album<\/a>. The photo here is one of my favourites from that morning, although another was ultimately chosen for the magazine. I like this one for the warmth of the light and the clean background.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"figure float-xs-left\"><a href=\"\/new\/2011\/red-percher-dragonfly\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"figure-img blog-thumb\" alt=\"Red percher dragonfly\" title=\"Red percher dragonfly\" src=\"http:\/\/www.neilfitzgeraldphoto.co.nz\/images\/red-percher-dragonfly.jpg\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n<p>My favourite photo of a red percher dragonfly and how it was made on a recent trip to Northland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,13],"tags":[11,24,22,44],"class_list":["post-418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-behind-the-camera","category-new-photo","tag-advice","tag-insect","tag-macro","tag-photography-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neilfitzgeraldphoto.co.nz\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neilfitzgeraldphoto.co.nz\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neilfitzgeraldphoto.co.nz\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neilfitzgeraldphoto.co.nz\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neilfitzgeraldphoto.co.nz\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.neilfitzgeraldphoto.co.nz\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neilfitzgeraldphoto.co.nz\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neilfitzgeraldphoto.co.nz\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neilfitzgeraldphoto.co.nz\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}