For Canada Day weekend this year, Angela and I headed up to the Verhoeven's cottage for a weekend of fun in the sun. Well, it was a little on the cold and rainy side, but there were some sunny periods where we could go out and laze around on the dock.

While we were down on the dock, Trina noticed a large dragonfly drowning in the lake. Somehow its wings had become wet and had stuck together, so Trina fished it out of the water set it down on a stump to dry off.

This act of kindness saved the life of the dragonfly, and also gave me an opportunity to practice my photography with a captive subject. I didn't think I could ever get a chance to get this close to a healthy dragonfly.

Once I have time, I will process some of the other photos and put them in my Picasa web album, but for now you will have to be satisfied with this one picture. At the original 8 megapixel resolution, you can see the individual nodes of the dragonfly's compound eyes!

After the dragonfly's wings dried off, it flew away to resume its life on the shore of the lake.

Technical details: This was shot with my Rebel XT + kit lens + reversed 50mm 1.8 Mark II, at 55mm (kit lens), ISO 1600, f/36 (kit lens), for 1/40th of a second.

Comments

Wow this picture is really cool!

Wow!  Very well done!  Did you handhold or use a tripod?  

I handheld this one, but the end of the lens was resting on the stump right in
front of the dragonfly, so the camera was very stable, which is why I could get
away with such a slow shutter speed.