|
Click on the +/-
to show or hide content
|
Photography
 Taking
pictures of odes can be fun, and the photos can be used for art, for identification
and documentation, or just for a personal album. Obviously, good equipment
can help, but decent results can be had even using simple equipment.
There are two major problems in photographing odes, getting a large
enough image and getting the whole critter in focus. Unfortunately, the closer you
get the harder it is to focus on the head and the tail at the same time, so there
is, like everything in photography, a trade-off.
While many people stress using a macro lens to get very close, I
have found that it is usually easier to use a medium to long lens such as a 200-400mm
in 35mm cameras, or a 4 to 8x optical zoom in a digital camera. By standing
back a bit, it is easier to get both ends of a dragon in focus; also, you don't
have to approach them as closely. Of course, your lens has to be fairly close
focusing, otherwise you lose the benefit of the greater magnification. In
35mm photography, I prefer to use my old standby 300mm lens and add an extension
tube between the lens and the camera. This allows me to focus within about
4 feet of an ode and I find that to be good enough in most circumstances.
If you have lots of time and patience you can get closer, but prepare to be frustrated
as the bug flies away.
A word on "macro" - A true macro lens will give you about a 1-1
representation of your subject and enable you to focus when very close to the bug.
Unfortunately, in any given focal length, macro lenses tend to be far more expensive
than normal ones.
Digital "macro focusing" - In many, if not all, digital cameras,
the "macro" focusing mode (often a little tulip picture), really doesn't allow you
to focus closer, it simply makes the focusing mechanism favor the nearby objects,
allowing for easier focusing. Even so, most digital cameras do focus quite
close to a subject.
|