Business as usual

Votrasi Imaging had organized a multi-city photo walk yesterday. I attended two places of this Photo walk. One was at Karkala around Anekere lake. Shiva Shankar and me went around exploring the waterbirds in and around Anekere.

Sleeping Boats

I had sold my Canon EOS 5Dmark II & Canon EOS 7D and purchased Canon EOS 1D Mark IV. This monster of a camera is top of the line Professional camera from canon stable. Learning curve was huge. We wanted to explore the 45 auto focus point capability in catching the bird in flight. I went with my trusted 300mm f/2.8 lens + 1.4x III extender. Shiva was equipped with his 500mm f/4 lens.

Sleeping Boats

Here are the result which is posted by Shiva on Flickr. Intermediate Egret & Purple heron.

Friends

As you can see the camera shined and was very quick in catching focus and keeping it in focus. I need to learn the millions of settings which control the auto-focus behavior of the is camera before writing a review.

Helm of affair

4:30PM evening I joined the photowalk group at Mangalore. We started at Sultan Battery area. We did a brief walk taking photos around the Gurpur river and later took a ferry ride to the sea side. When we finished at the beach front it was half an hour after sunset. We took the ferry ride back to the starting point.

Lead the boat

There I did a brief talk along with discussion about ‘Macro Photography’. It was a refreshing fun filled session with everybody doing something on their own including pranks on each other. I got to know many of the Votrasi gang who were really a great enthusiastic bunch of youngsters who are eager to learn. My session on macro photography seemed to have been absorbed intently as I could not see any yawn or lack of concentration from any of my audience even though it was fag end of the day .

Male Coral-tailed Cloudwing

I thoroughly enjoyed the great interaction and will be looking forward to more such events. You can check out my photos which are quite different from my usual photography.

Boat and coconut groove

Serinity

Wall of fame

Charumuri

Cold Gola

At the knife's edge

Gola

Fire in the sky

sunset

Post Sunset

Male Pied Paddy Skimmer(Neurothemis tullia)

I found this Male Pied Paddy Skimmer(Neurothemis tullia) dragonfly on a late evening. I tried shooting him with my 300mm f 2.8 lens thinking that he will fly off if I approach closer. The results of 300mm were not good as light had faded and I had to resort for a shallower depth of field or higher ISO both of which are detrimental to the quality of macro. So I ran quickly to my car and picked the macro rig and came back hoping he will still be there waiting for me. He did not disappoint me.

Male Pied Paddy Skimmer(Neurothemis tullia)

The Dragonfly was still perched on grass blade. I had ample time to position myself and use my Canon EOS 5D mark II with Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM fitted with Ray Flash Adapter on a Canon Speedlite 580EX II flash. I was not able to reach front of him as there was a big trench with lot of weeds. So I was not able to get frontal image. Otherwise it was a very pleasant shooting. Breeze was calm on that evening, which helped me to critically focus on the dragonfly. F/14 aperture I used gave a great depth of field which nicely highlights the hairs on the dragonfly as well as the grass.

The Pied Paddy Skimmer (Neurothemis tullia) is a species of dragonfly Distributeed throughout the Oriental region and found in south and south-east Asia. It appears in Bangladesh, China, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia (Peninsular Malaysia), Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, and Viet Nam.

Male Pied Paddy Skimmer(Neurothemis tullia)

Male has a black face. Eyes are blackish brown above, violaceous below. Thorax is black with mid-dorsal creamish white stripe. Legs are black. Basal half of wing is opaque blue black which is bordered by a milky white patch towards the tip. The wing tips are transparent with a dull brown wing spot. Abdomen is black with a broad mid-dorsal creamy white stripe on the upper side.

Female differs significantly from the male in body markings and coloration. The face is olivaceous yellow. Eyes are pale brown above, which fade to pale olivaceous towards the sides and below. Thorax is greenish yellow with a bright yellow mid dorsal stripe. This stripe is broadly bordered with blackish brown throughout. The outer surface of legs is yellow and the inner surface is black.

Base of the wings bright amber yellow. Front edge of the wing is blackish brown, broadening into a very large blackish brown spot. This spot extend to the rear edge of the wing. In hind-wings this spot is irregular or sickle shaped. Tips of all wings are broadly blackish brown. Wing spot is dull brown. Abdomen is bright yellow with a broad black band above. Underside is black.

Male Pied Paddy Skimmer(Neurothemis tullia)

It is a conspicuous species of ponds, marshes and paddy fields. Flight is slow and weak. Usually perches on twigs, aquatic weeds and other plants. This species is very common along irrigation canals in paddy fields.

Breeds in marshes and ponds. Flight season: Found throughout the year. However, peak abundance is during July-September months.

Brown-backed Red Marsh Hawk (Orthetrum chrysis)

This male Brown-backed Red Marsh Hawk (Orthetrum chrysis) dragonfly was sitting in the garden basking the afternoon sun. Light was quite harsh on the dragonfly. The position it was sitting was also awkward so I had not much of chance of getting a good frontal pose. What I decided is to get a nice wing vein details from where I could take picture. I used my Canon EOS 5D mark II with Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM lens and used existing sunlight to take this photograph. As the Sun was harsh you could notice the dark contrasty shot in the side photo. For the other two shots I used a semi transparent umbrella (shoot through umbrella) to cast shade on the dragonfly. This method was short lived as it startled the dragonfly and it flew off after few shots.

In Males eyes are dark reddish brown paler towards lateral and undersides. Thorax is dark chocolate brown above, which pales to golden olivaceous-brown on sides. Legs are black. Wings are transparent and tinted with deep golden amber at base. In the hind wings the amber tint encircles a black opaque area. Wing spot is blackish brown. Abdomen is bright red contrasting with blackish brown thorax.

Brown-backed Red Marsh Hawk (Orthetrum chrysis)

Early morning and late evening sun are the best to take photos as the light is softer and directional. Mid noon sun gives strong light and dark shadows which look horrible on photos. Either choose a cloudy or overcast day or shoot photos under shade.

Brown-backed Red Marsh Hawk (Orthetrum chrysis) is a medium sized dragonfly with brown black thorax and bright red abdomen. The face is covered with short and stiff black hairs. This is a common and relatively unattractive dragonfly species. It is not easy to get a nice shot as they are usually quite sensitive to human.

Male abdomen is bright blood-red; frons bright scaret-red, clypeus reddish brown; wings hyaline, with a pale uniform brown and a dark golden-amber spot at base of hind wing.

Brown-backed Red Marsh Hawk (Orthetrum chrysis)

Female thorax is pale brown, creamy yellow on dorsum; abdomen brownish yellow marked with a mid-dorsal brown stripe and an obscure stripe at both sides.

Female generally comes to water just for laying eggs, but male usually take the chance to mate. They are very wary insects and hardly to get closer except when they are in copulation.