From time to time I like to give myself a challenge or theme to focus on. Coming into the summer months I decided to focus on damsel and dragonflies. The aim being to get some 'portrait' shots with the creature reasonably focused throughout, along with some action shots such as mating rituals and flying.
I set off to Mount Usher, situated in Ashford in Wicklow, knowing that at this time of year there was a good chance of seeing damselflies there. Previously I had taken shots of Demoiselles along the river, but had struggled to get a clean sharp shot. The 'island' area is favored by both the blue and red damselflies. So both areas where high on my list that day.
I was walking along the riverside path observing a number of male Beautiful Demoiselles flying frantically around possibly trying to attract the attention of a female. Just on a little, I spotted this lucky male in the mating ritual. The male is the vivid blue while the female is more muted in colouring. I really like the way the tails combine creating the heart shape as they mate.
I used a shutter speed of 1/1250 sec with an aperture of f7.1 resulting in an ISO of 2500. The photo was taken on a Canon R6 with a 100-400mm EF lens and 1.4x extender set at 309mm. While I could have achieved the shot without the extender, other shots taken needed the extender, so it was more convenient to leave it on the lens. It is a real challenge to get both sets of eyes in focus and one needs to be very careful how the camera is positioned. This was the best I could do without stepping into the water!
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