Dunyeats Heath

Dunyeats Heath Nature Reserve, in Poole Dorset was Saturdays Macro Destination.  I took along my new Manfrotto Befree Tripod to try out, along with just the Canon 100mm macro lens in the hope of finding some dragonflies resting to take and try the tripod out.

The place was buzzing with flying dragonflies – the reserve is a heathland with large pond.  Finding them roosting to take was not going well until another photographer kindly said he’d found a couple of resting dragonflies – and would I like to see and take some film of them.

Here are the two dragonflies that he pointed out – a Migrant Hawker and Golden Ringed – both taken in Natural light and on the tripod.  All bar the last are stacked images.  I did this to keep the background blurred by shooting at a wide aperture – and then when they are merged together the whole of the dragonfly is in focus.

Migrant Hawker - 3 Images Stacked
Canon EOS 760D (100mm, f/3.2, 1/160 sec, ISO200)
Migrant Hawker – 3 Images Stacked
Migrant Hawker - 4 Images Stacked
Canon EOS 760D (100mm, f/3.5, 1/250 sec, ISO400)
Migrant Hawker – 4 Images Stacked
Migrant Hawker - 3 Images Stacked
Canon EOS 760D (100mm, f/2.8, 1/400 sec, ISO400)
Migrant Hawker – 3 Images Stacked
Golden-ringed Dragonfly - 5 Images Stacked
Canon EOS 760D (100mm, f/3.2, 1/400 sec, ISO400)
Golden-ringed Dragonfly – 5 Images Stacked
Golden-ringed Dragonfly
Canon EOS 760D (100mm, f/5.6, 1/100 sec, ISO400)
Golden-ringed Dragonfly

Whilst photographing these dragonflies – a strange bug crawled out over a bramble leaf near the Golden-ringed.  I took these shots of it – and it also appears in the video below.  As yet I have not identified it.

Bug on Blackberry
Canon EOS 760D (100mm, f/6.3, 1/100 sec, ISO400)
Bug on Blackberry
Bug on Bramble
Canon EOS 760D (100mm, f/5.6, 1/50 sec, ISO400)
Bug on Bramble

Finally as well as this – I found a Labyrinth Spider that I took a couple of stacks of.  I think it also looks quite well in black & white, so one of the stacks is converted to mono.

Labyrinth - 12 Images Stacked
Canon EOS 760D (100mm, f/4.5, 1/100 sec, ISO400)
Labyrinth – 12 Images Stacked
Labyrinth B&W - 9 Image Stack
Canon EOS 760D (100mm, f/4.5, 1/125 sec, ISO400)
Labyrinth B&W – 9 Image Stack

As I had a tripod – I also took some video footage of the subjects.  The resulting video is below

 

Map of Location

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