A few dragonfly shots with my new toy

Just a few dragonfly shots from my new lens. You'll have to view the exif to see for yourself which lens it is. If you need help on viewing exif, view this:. The "bokeh-er" background should give you a hint that it's a long focal length :D. I'm still not telling. Go check the exif yourself.

Trithemis aurora male, crimson dropwing

Canon EOS 40D, 1/50, f/7.1, ISO 320, Natural Light, Handheld

Acisoma panorpoides male, eating a damselfly....yummy :)

Canon EOS 40D, 1/100, f/8, ISO 320, Fill Flash, Handheld


Trithemis aurora female, crimson dropwing

Canon EOS 40D, 1/100, f/7.1, ISO 200, Natural Light, Handheld

I shot these with fill flash and natural lighting, at between 10am to 12 noon. You would expect the light to be harsh but luckily it was an overcast day. Nice diffused light thanks to the clouds.

I haven't tried Full Flash shots with this long focal length macro lens yet, but i know the light is going to be harsh. Heck, i could see that even in my fill flash shot already, so it's gonna be worse for full flash.

I use the same DIY Diffusers for my usual 40D, MP-E65 and MT-24EX setup, except now it's 40D, MT-24EX and a new, longer lens, and longer working distance. So why the harsh light? Why does it work ok on when i use my MP-E65 but not with this new lens? Well, again, it's about the apparent light size, which i explained in one of my earlier post: Full Flash Macro Photography - 3 Things you must know!

Besides the longer working distance compared to the MP-E65, which I am still trying to get used to, this new lens also produces much warmer images. I normally set the WB to 4800K for the 40D, MP-E65 and MT-24EX, but the same 4800K still results in very warm photos. I'm going to lower the WB to maybe 4000 next time.

That's all and cheers for now :)