Mating dragon flies

[Saurabh Bhatia]

This is a pic of a couple in frenzy. They were mating actively.
During mating, the male catches hold of the female from behind her head and drags her along. The flight is much faster than ordinary and almost uncontrolled because the female tries to break free. See http://www.blurtit.com/q781853.html

This couple was shot by me when i was preparing for something else.
They were flying uncontrollably and i was chasing their flight with camera from just 5-6 feet distance.
The wings flap at over 500 times/sec and i took the shot at 1/500 secs but it was not possible to get clear wings, but why i like this one is because you can see the absolutely symmetrical shadow of their wings on the ground.


It was taken using
Olympus E520, sports mode; FL 64 mm;F/4.5; ex-1/500 sec;ISO-100

[Mrudul Godbole]

Nice record image. The shadow adds to the composition. A rectangular framing would have looked good. You could have used the Av mode and increased the shutter speed to ISO 200 so you could have got 1/1000 speed to freeze the motion. Thanks for sharing.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Good effort. Apart from the shutter speed, it is also important to get the focus right. That would help in getting the body sharp, where as wings can be blurred a bit.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi