I was walking along the banks of Beaver Creek at Kirby Preserve and saw something perched in some brush at the creek's edge. Pausing before I approached too close, I snapped a few shots and realized that it was a Dragonhunter.....a dragonfly that I'd been actively seeking for a couple of years.
This huge dragonfly (3.5 inches long) feeds on insects, including other dragonflies...thus the name.
Since that time, I've found several Dragonhunters and have been fortunate to be able to get some images of them. Most of them have been at Kirby Preserve, but a couple were at the Snyder Park Arboretum.
Yesterday, Gracie and I were walking along Beaver Creek in about the same location where I saw my first Dragonhunter. I large dragonfly popped up from the brush and perched a short distance away....it was another Dragonhunter.
Surprisingly cooperative, it allowed me to approach and shoot many (way too many) images. I shot several in-camera stacked focus-bracketed images in order to get maximum depth of field for this big dragon.
In the images below, you'll note differences in the backgrounds. When shooting a long telephoto lens (I was shooting the Olympus Zuiko 100-400mm at 400mm) the angle of view is quite narrow. Because of the narrow angle, moving only a few inches one way or another can markedly vary the background.
