Egg Drop (in) Soup

Gallery: WildlifePosted July 4, 2011131 views7 comments

I have never tried to capture this activity of the dragonflies as it happens so fast with some species. This one stayed at nearly the same spot and kept dropping her eggs so I cranked up the ISO and fired away with sequential. This is fun.

Olympus E-5
50-200mm F2.8-3.5 @ 200mm
aperture priority
1/4000 sec @ F 3.5 -0.3 EV
No flash
spot metering
ISO 500
S-AF/MF
one of 13 sequential frames
Tripod
Lots of noise reduction some spotting of specular dots
Sharpening.

Far from perfect but I like it as a start.

Large view provided

Would really appreciate critique and suggestion.

Comments

7 comments

Comment posted by Philip Hodgkins on July 4, 2011 at 4:05 PM

Nicely documented, Charlie. This is one of those images that imparts knowledge rather than technique, and is appreciated by me as such.

Registered on July 24, 2006, 2741 Posts, 12349 Comments

Comment posted by Steve Balke on July 4, 2011 at 4:57 PM

Quite the capture, Charlie! Very interesting. You mention ISO 500 and "lots of NR": looking at the reviews of the E5 they seem to imply that you could go higher than that in ISO. That said, it depends on how good is your NR software as well as the camera capabilities. For this image, the light is pretty harsh so it might be tough to find much more detail. However, you might want to have a close look at the original before NR and the final result to see if you lost much detail due to NR. If you did, I suggest you try different methods of NR.

Registered on June 18, 2009, 229 Posts, 2915 Comments

Comment posted by Charlie Baugh on July 4, 2011 at 5:54 PM

I learned too Phil.

I use the NR in Studio 2 the program I bought from Olympus and did not notice much change in detail at 50% NR in this program. I'm generally happy with what I got here and will be looking for other opportunities to shoot at even higher ISO. Thanks Steve.

Registered on April 18, 2011, 329 Posts, 1985 Comments

Comment posted by Howard Cheek on July 4, 2011 at 7:40 PM

I've tried this myself so I know how difficult it is Charlie.
Great focus and stop action, really like the water action here. The complimentary color of the rock's a plus too..
Well done!

Registered on July 24, 2008, 1201 Posts, 10758 Comments

Comment posted by Ron Huff on July 5, 2011 at 12:17 PM

A really nice shot, Charlie. Thanks for sharing, since I have never seen how this is done.

Ron Huff

Registered on August 31, 2010, 69 Posts, 440 Comments

Comment posted by Mark Seaver on July 5, 2011 at 6:00 PM

This is a great behavior capture. I especially like that you've got the little droplet of water that she deposits the egg into and flicks it away.

Registered on January 23, 2011, 1103 Posts, 17270 Comments

Comment posted by Charlie Baugh on July 6, 2011 at 12:58 AM

Mark, my book says they wash off 25-50 eggs with repeated touching the water after hovering just above the surface. The hatch is in about 5 days.

Registered on April 18, 2011, 329 Posts, 1985 Comments