Emerged Damselfly and Exuvia

[SKM]

The exuvia is the empty shell left behind after a damselfly emerges. At the Blue Pool on Friday we spent a lot of time watching and shooting along the waters edge. It is difficult at this stage to confirm the ID but the majority of damsels on the wing were either common blue or azure so likely to be one of those

drying out, a process which may take a couple of hours before the damsel is ready to fly
1/500, f10, ISO 800, 100mm

another damsel just emerged and close to the empty exuvia
1/320, f10, ISO 800, 100mm

 

[Stuart Philpott]

Stan,these are quite lovely mate, once I saw them I had to reply We have taken a couple or 3 damsel images of late,more in fun and for their beauty really than with any serious intent,so i appreciate these . We were waiting for a no show kingy at close to dawn recently and couldn't believe the variety of small blue fairies(ii know lmao) at our feet. They are cracking for this untrained eye Stan,it's also something I have not seen yet.So first up grats for finding this and another for the execution....bg is so clean I love your framing or cropping? Can you give me just a brief heads up on how you took them please also what time of day ie light etc?

Is it canon you use,what lens please? Stan I have a 100macro,it's the non is but takes some nice froggy pics,although in no way have I mastered macro and probably never will find the time. But it would be nice to try a bit harder when the chance comes again and be better armed with ideas on how you have tackled these. I've also looked through Bill's comunal thread these stunning insects are so beautiful,it would be nice to really capture them, like you have.
sorry for the q's mate they are simply lovely I can't find a better word cheers for sharing them,the second is really special for me,I dunno mate sometimes an image just grabs one.the colours are so subtle the wings so emphasised?
Very cool mate complete admiration

take care

Stu

 

[SKM]

thanks for looking Stu

Both the shots are almost full frame as far as the subject size is concerned, just mainly chopped off the sides for composition. They were shot with my 7D II and Canon 100 f2.8 LIS macro lens. Often for this sort of shot I would use my 300 f4 and 1.4x but as they were so close to the bank and having just emerged, unlikely to fly away I used macro and got down very close. They were moving around the grass stem and there was quite a breeze so it was just a matter of waiting for the wind to drop and the subjects parallel to the lens before taking the shots

 

[Stuart Philpott]

Cheers Stan much appeciated ahh mate the pleasure's mine,ironically I actually saw this for the first time on sunday, but pics were all but impossible,lovely to finally see though!! He he I was sort of otherwise involved with a young dabchick she was wonderful Stan I've wanted to get close for a good while and came home with a bucket full of shots,which we have barely looked at yet,but I feel maybe just one or two maybe quite nice.I was very out of my depth but really enjoyed the experience.

thanks so much for the words of advice Stan really appreciate your time mate

Take care

Stu