Dangerous Dragon, Beautiful Butterflies, Death of a Dragonfly.

[Dennis]

Hello,

Recently, the SE Qld weather hasn’t provide me with many opportunities for astronomical viewing let alone astrophotography, so I’ve been playing around with CS3 by processing some photos from recent day trips which tended to be quite overcast. Hope I haven’t overdone the saturation boost!

Water Dragon – 400mm 1/500 @ F8 ISO400
Butterflies – 200mm 1/250 @ F5 ISO400
Water Lily - 200mm 1/640 @ F8 ISO400
Willy Wagtail - 200mm 1/320 @ F5.6 ISO400
Water Lily – 400mm 1/500 @ F8 ISO100
Dragonfly and Lily - 400mm 1/500 @ F8 ISO100

Taken in Toohey Forest and Mount Coot-tha. The Water Dragon lives under our house!

Thanks for looking!

Dennis

[peter_4059]

Nice shots Dennis - Are you sure it's not b#nking butterflies though?

[Dennis]

Hi Peter

Thanks! Strangely enough, that phrase did cross my mind but I decided not to disturb the decorum of the forum!:whistle:

Cheers

Dennis

[Kevnool]

Geat pics Dennis , does the water dragon get a good feed under the house ?

Cheers Kev.

[Quark]

Beautiful images Dennis,

Especially like the shots of the water lily.

Cheers
Trevor

[Dennis]

Hi Kev,

Thanks! The water dragon just lives rent free under our house and each morning, snacks around the pool on various insects or other stuff it can find, then in the afternoon takes a stroll down to the local creek before returning to the house for bedtime, around 5:00pm.

We’ve followed the trail left by its tail in the loose soil, and it looks like the dragon is kipping amongst a pile of junk under the house.

We didn’t want the creature to become tame, so although he/she has got a little used to use in the garden, and watches us swim in the pool from the pool side, it’s still wary if we accidentally get too close when we are out of the water.

We have heard the occasional “plop” when it dives into the pool for a swim! It is really nice that we can live so close to native wildlife!:)

Cheers

Dennis

[Dennis]

Hi Trevor,

Thanks! The reach of the 400mm lens saved me from wading out to these gorgeous water plants!:whistle:

Cheers

Dennis

[ving]

nice shots dennis :)
like em all

[StephenM]

Great collection of images Dennis. Like David said, I like em all.
I don't think I've seen that species of butterfly before - I assume they were at Toohey Forest?

Cheers,
Stephen

[Dennis]

Thanks David – that means a lot coming from Mr. Macro!

Cheers

Dennis

[Dennis]

Thanks Stephen! Yes, we walk there reasonably frequently and often see these delightful creatures busily flitting around some of the lesser walked paths. They are very mobile and only settle briefly, so they had appeared quite elusive until this pair parked itself when I happened to have the 40D and 70-200 F4 L at hand. This was some 500m into the forest off Monash Road/Isabella Street.

I managed to squeeze off half a dozen shots and this was the best of the bunch. The IS really comes into its own when in the shade, even though Toohey Forest is reasonably open and thin in terms of the canopy.

Cheers

Dennis

[astroron]

Nice pic's Dennis:thumbsup:
You are a poet and you didn't know it:rolleyes:

[gary]

Hi Dennis,

These shots are absolutely stunning and you have excelled yourself!
Enjoyed looking at each and every one. Simply breathtaking. :thumbsup:

Best Regards

Gary

P.S.

Terrific tongue twisting thread topic title too! :lol:

[astro_south]

All super shots Dennis - thanks for sharing

[Dennis]

Thank you Ron, Gary and Andrew!

I ran a web search this morning and found a Brisbane website (http://www.brisbaneinsects.com/brisbane_nymphs/OrangeRinglet.htm)that identifies this species, an Orange Ringlet (http://www.brisbaneinsects.com/brisbane_nymphs/OrangeRinglet.htm)- Hypocysta adiante, Family Nymphalidae.

Here’s another lame poem for you Ron!

The World Wide Web
Such a fabulous dwelling
Quite compelling

World wide communication
Sharing of information
Regardless of nation

Ice In Space
My favourite place
In cyber space.:)

Groan.......:whistle:

Cheers

Dennis

[astroron]

:lol::lol::lol::lol::thumbsup:

[Liz]

WOWOW, amazingly beautiful pics one and all, Dennis, though 2 and 3 are simply stunning!!!!!!!!!

[Dennis]

Thanks Liz! I’m certain that water lilies were made in heaven, because they are just so ridiculously beautiful and incredibly inspiring.

Cheers

Dennis

[Octane]

Dennis,

All of these are fantastic! One minor gripe, though: would love to have seen all of the dragon in the frame, the cut tail is a little distracting, to my eye, at least.

I really like the composition in the third image. And, the rest of them are composed and framed wonderfully, with just the right saturation, too.

Excellent work.

Regards,
Humayun

[Dennis]

Thanks H – I appreciate you dropping by and providing a critique.:)

Yes, with the water dragon I struggled with the tail – to crop or not? As it was out of focus due to the relatively shallow depth of field, I cropped it to focus more attention on the gaping mouth.

But, I also struggled with the original crop, thinking that it wasn’t tight enough; that is, maybe I should crop tighter, head and shoulders only.:shrug:

Anyhow, without further ado, here is the full frame, re-sized down to 1024 pixels. I'm getting plenty of Photoshop practice with the weeks continuous rain we've had here is SE Qld. :lol:

Cheers

Dennis

[Jen]

Beautiful pics Dennis :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[AlexN]

Great shots Dennis... Good to see some of your photography back on the forums! I've got to say I've not had the cameras out since this weather set in..

My favs are #1, #2 and #6.. What was the water dragon doing at the time.. That is a text book defensive stance for a dragon, especially with the big gaping mouth... Not something that people usually see unless they get way too close to the lizard, or its fighting another lizard... One of my little bearded dragons do this sometimes when I handle him, as he's not too keen on the idea yet.. but he'll get used to it.. Luckily for me, his bark is worse than his bite at this stage! :)

Cheers mate,
Alex.

[Dennis]

Thanks Jen and Alex – having these wonderful creatures to take photos of has helped ease the withdrawal symptoms from astronomy due to the poor season in Qld.

Alex – this was an interesting encounter with Lizzie (our nickname for her) as I was in the lounge room shooting out of the window with the 400mm F5.6 and she was completely at ease on the lawn.

In the burst that I took as she ran towards the camera, it looked like she was simply yawning! We’ve seen her run for insects and other tid bits and her chomping action appeared a little different to this “yawn”? Although she tolerates us at a distance, if we get closer than say, 5 metres, she just runs away! She just won’t let us get close enough to feel threatened – she’s far too wily and quick.

The closest we can get is if we are swimming in the pool. Lizzie often watches from the pool coping, completely unfazed by the movement, splashing and noise and we can easily get to within 1 metre of her in this situation. It seems she doesn’t perceive us as a threat in the water, at her level?

Thanks for the explanations of the behaviours though, we really find it very interesting learning from watching the daily routines, reflecting on the beauty of nature, albeit in a small suburban back garden!

Cheers

Dennis

[jjjnettie]

Dennis, a superb set of images.
The Waterlilly is gorgeous.

[Dennis]

Thanks Jeanette.

Lizzie came out this morning as we were having breakfast and climbed the BBQ wall to sun herself – she adores sitting in sunny places! She looks a very impressive climber; I hadn’t realized how well they can climb.

Cheers

Dennis