Aeshna cyanea

Aeshna cyanea – or Southern Hawker Dragonfly.  These are the first images I have taken of one of these Hawkers, and this one handily hung about for a bit, enabling me to take an environment shot and then some attempts at hand held stacks closer up.  I did not have my tripod with me, and truth be told for this dragonfly, it would probably of not helped with the close up stacks, as the dragonfly would most likely of flown off.  All shots were therefore taken hand held on my Canon 100mm F2.8 USM Macro lens (Canon 760D Camera) in natural light.

Here are the images that I kept.

Canon EOS 760D (100mm, f/4, 1/1000 sec, ISO400)

The following close ups are all 2 shots stacks.  I processed all of these in Helicon Focus 6.  The first is probably the best as I got the full head in focus in the stacks.

Canon EOS 760D (100mm, f/6.3, 1/640 sec, ISO400)

Whereas the next two whilst closer up and still very pleasing results, don’t quite have all the hair on the face sharp.

Canon EOS 760D (100mm, f/6.3, 1/640 sec, ISO400)

Canon EOS 760D (100mm, f/4, 1/160 sec, ISO400)

Taken at Blashford Lakes Nature Reserve.

Map of Location