"Hey mate, seen any dragonflies round 'ere ?"

Hi everyone,

I've been watching and trying to get shots of the hobbies on my local patch for the past few weeks since they turned up. A week or so ago I got the 200-400 lens and took it out to see the hobbies. On virtually the first outing for me with the new lens I had quite a remarkable session with one of the hobbies which decided he wanted a closer look at my new lens
I've been birdwatching for too many years to remember but have never had such an experience and such spectacular views (of any bird) before. For periods over ~30 minutes, the hobby was hawking around me at times no more than 12 feet away ! At one stage it perched on a post no more than 20 feet and sat there for approx. a minute while I gawped (and clicked) on

I wasn't in a hide nor was any camo gear involved - I was just quietly biding my time, clicking away completely in awe as it showed off some spectacular acrobatics. For those dragonfly macro lovers amongst you rest-assured that none were harmed, at least while I was there, the hobby seemed to be taking only moths and butterflies (they had a feast on the painted ladies when they came through recently). I only wish I'd had the presence of mind and speed of hand to zoom out on the lens at times when it came too close !

Tech specs: D90 200-400mm ISO 640 1/2000th f8
Processed using CS3 (cropped slightly, levels, curves, sharpenend) and the original file (converted from raw to jpeg) is
HERE

Comments/suggestions welcome; I thought about doing a big crop as a portrait and I realize the wing-tips are OOF and the cheeks are a bit bright.
Be warned there may be more hobby shots on the way

A big nod of thanks to Tony Flashman of this forum who's been a massive help with my dummies questions about the 'digital darkroom' and the black art of CS3 - thanks Tony!

Thanks for reading,
Rob

Hi Rob

What a stunning experience and a cracking flight shot of a very difficult bird.

Paul Hobson

That is one fantastic shot, Rob. I look forward to some more. Tony is much better at CS3 than me, in fact Photoshop elements is about my limit. In that there is a shadows/highlights command. Hope you don't mind, but I copied this shot into that and lightened the shadows by about 25%, which brought out a lot more detail under the wings. You might not like it, but worth a go.

David

Cracking image.

I've been trying to work out what it is holding from your full size image, it looks like the Hobby is damaged on its underparts, disarrayed feathers and flesh hanging down, plus a large amount of blood on its leg. The prey item looks like a bird rather than insect, perhaps the prey item fought back???

All pretty gory and well caught

Thanks for the comments.

Well-spotted Mike I forgot to mention in my original post that the bird appeared to be injured. It didn't happen while I was watching it - I noticed the injury and odd angle it was carrying it's leg before it made that catch I photographed. I'm not sure what it has caught in the shot but it wasn't a bird.

I've posted a closer view of the bird's underside and the injury
HERE. The processing of the image may be well-off but it's a quick one to illustrate the injury to the bird. When I looked at it with a few friends we wondered whether there wasn't some type of line caught around its leg.
Whatever it is, thankfully it doesn't seem to be affecting the bird as it's still around now several weeks after that shot was taken.

Great shot, great story.

Great story, I can feel your excitement, a special day.

Tim

A great shot Rob, Perhaps a little dark in the shadow areas. Not the best of conditions to get in flight shots, the light looks as though it was very harsh.
The injury looks to me as though it could be a fishing line of sorts? there seems to be something around its leg?

Tony