Macro photography – Small golden dragonfly

Dragonflies have alway been a problem for me to photograph, so I am particularly pleased that I managed to get quite close to a small golden dragonfly today when I had my specialist macro lens fitted to my Sony Nex 6.

I’m not sure of the species, but I found this dragonfly sitting on the end of a stick which was acting as a stake for a small tree. Normally if I find a dragonfly sitting anywhere it will be gone as soon as I can collect my camera, and it would definitely fly off as soon as I got close. This particular creature however not only sat still whilst I got my camera, but it very kindly sat on the end of the stick in the bright, hot sunshine whilst I took several pictures of it. It even sat patiently whilst I took about 15 pictures with the lens set to maximum aperture (because the K mount to NEX adapter I use had the aperture actuation ring set to ignore the aperture of the lens)!

Fortunately I spotted the problem with the aperture and managed to get a series of pictures with the lens reset to f/8, which sharpened up the image nicely. I took several pictures from a distance away and then gradually got closer and closer to try to get some nice portraits. Although these images are not the best macro pictures I’ve ever taken, I’m quite pleased because of the subject matter.