Common background...

Another glorious late summer's day (but there's rain on the way by the weekend), and it is out on the bike with a camera, following the same route as yesterday. I am pleasantly surprised to find the revamped footbridge across the Dorset Stour at Throop open for business - two days before the official opening. I stop briefly to record the occasion for posterity (it still isn't quite finished), before continuing to the local nature reserve.

I have dragonfly in mind. I did yesterday, but none were close enough, or still enough, for my lens. Today I was lucky. Although being somewhat elusive, it was quite by chance that I spotted a Common Darter (Sympetrum striolatum) land on a grass stalk as I rode along the footpath on the river bank. There is always a tense moment as I unpack the camera, mount it on a support of some kind, and start shooting. All too often the subject gets spooked by the attention, or simply flies off because it was bored with being where it was.

I get but two shots of the darter set against a background of floating weed, thrown completely out of focus by the wide aperture set on the lens, before it is gone. Quite possibly the same one returned a number of times - they are very territorial - and I continued photographing it, but the background was not as good.


300mm f/4D AF-S Nikkor. 1/2000 second at f/5.6. - 0.67 EV compensation. ISO 400. Monopod



© 2013