There are about 3,000 species of dragonflies in the world, and they live throughout the planet with the exception of Antarctica. They have not changed too much because they fly on their webbed wings that now exceeds three hundred million years on Europe’s carboniferus swamp. Okay, well, their wings are no longer a powerful 70 centimeters, but the original design remains the same. And why change something that works perfectly?
Dragonflies are horrific hunters in both water and air. Their aquatic larvae hunting strategy is like a tiger prey from ambush, but once they are adults, they become small, acrobatic fighter helicopters. Eyes made of more than 30,000 small ometidia detect their prey, usually a small insect like a mosquito (another reason for loving dragonflies).
A small but powerful brain can then predict its flight path and determine a blind location to an undesirable approach. Four wings, operated by freely strong thoracic muscles, then hold with unheard prey. It is the most successful hunter in the animal empire, for our knowledge.
Flying adult is another nature for dragonflies, and they do much more than catching hunting in the midar. They eat in flight, and they also have sexual intercourse in the midar and lay eggs. This last part is very unique; Some birds, such as Swifts, also have sexual intercourse in flight, but it is also a stable case for them to lay eggs.
Adult dragonfly life spans usually have only a few months, so a romantic honeymoon will be a foolish waste of time. For male dragonfly, sexual intercourse is more like a victim than anything. Their sexual process is as follows:
First, the male moves the sperm from his tip near the tip of his tail to another section of his stomach (below the wing area). Then he catches his prey – sorry, his partner – with special clappers behind his tail behind the head, as shown in the picture above. In the work of self -sexual intercourse, the female bends under the male to connect with the man’s stomach, forms a beautiful, somewhat odd heart as shown below.
Finally, a strange biplane resembles, the future parents fly to lay their eggs. Dragonflies are exceptionally unique to be able to fly in a coordinated manner while having sexual intercourse, some are really leading to unique photos (until you feel a little apticed).
Some species are located just below the surface of the water, on other aquatic plants or near the water near the water. There are also species in which the female is completely submerged and without the help of the partner, it comes out on a dangerous mission below the water surface. For clear reasons, most dragonfly species of male eggs also guards the female closely.
not with Aishna JankiaAlthough. For them, immediately after sexual intercourse, they went out to find sexual intercourse with another woman. This, of course, is not always desired by women – but if they are not interested, they have an interesting strategy to stop them. When the woman sees an all-igger man nearby, she simply removes her death and falls to the ground. It seems that the dead woman is no longer attractive to the male, so she fly to find one in a better position.
Some tips for the picture of dragonflies
If the dragonflies are your subjects, then a simple puddle behind your house can be a platform for great drama, tragedies and romantic outbreaks. However, it is not always easy to take them photos. Hopefully the following tips help.
First, when observing or taking photographs of dragonflies, you will soon know that there are some regularity in their behavior. Dragonflies have favorite prescription from which they discover or consume their prey. Often these are dry twigs or grass blades above water. Search, sit, and wait.
When dragonfallizes laying their eggs in water, they are very interesting for the picture. For reflections in water, keep your camera just above the surface. A strong trippai that can support the camera is very useful for this purpose. A gimbal head is priceless, so you do not immerse your precious gear at the moment you carry your hands. Use light direction, water reflection, backlighting and background.
Which lens to choose? It depends. In the morning -morning, dragonflies are often seated on a plant, hard by the cold of the night. You can contact them very closely without intimidating them from a distance. In those times, even a wide-angle macro lens (eg) Lava 15 mm F/4 Macro) It is possible.
However, a classic macro lens (eg) Nikon 105 mm f/2.8 mc If you shoot with Nikon Z System) then usually has a good starting point. This will allow you to capture the close-up of the dragonfly, if it is still staying, while still standing a little further.
Once the morning sun rises, the life quickly puts it into the dragonflies – and with it, caution and shame. During the day, the best lenses are telephoto with long working distances, but a high magnification. A 400 mm lens is either ideal.
Probably the best “dragonfly” lens made by Nikon is the best created by Nikon 100-400 mm f/4.5-5.6Its minimum focus is 75 cm (0.38x magnification), which is sufficient for moderate and large dragonfly species. Another great option is Tamon 50-400 mm F/4.5-6.3Which has even more magnification on 0.5x. On a budget, 28-400 mm F/4-8 of Nikon Dragonfly for magnification of 0.35x is surprisingly good for photography. ,Read more about magnification here If you are not familiar; Generally, I recommend at least 0.25X magnification for dragonfly photography.)
Due to long minimum focus distance, using prime exotics is a bit complex, Like I discussed in an article last weekUnfortunately, you can not add only an extension tube to these lenses, as the extension tubes have a shorter and less impact on long -term focal length lenses. However, you can use a teleconverter, which multiply your magnification by the teleconverted factor. (For example, if you use a 2x teleconverter, then a 0.25x magnitude is an impressive 0.5x magnification.)
And this is briefly. The time to take a picture of the intimate life of the dragonflies is slowly running out as a summer faded. Any of them will now survive winter on the cool surface of ponds and rivers. Only their vast children living in water will ensure the continuity of life. But the remaining adult dragonfallies are probably near the water, experienceing their lives until their last breath. Take your camera and get them photographed.
