Bubbles is leaving us today...

I have had a wonderful few days off work, with a friend (Bubbles) visiting from Hamilton. We have shopped and been swimming and shopped some more and late yesterday we went taking photos.  There weren't a lot of birds about to photograph so I spent most of the time chasing dragonflies (which I failed to capture in an image) and damselflies. One of the best shots of the day was of a waxeye - which is kind of funny because I have so many opportunities to photograph them at home.

 

 

Damselflies

After so many months of birds, today I have something different to post. Damselflies!  Summer brings out these tiny creatures and they are so much fun to photograph. This time I used the 150-500mm to capture them as I only had the one lens with me and I was out looking for birds.

Initially I wasn't sure it was going to work because I had to get so far away from them to be able to focus, even had to go to manual focus which is always a worry with my eyesight! But I managed some really interesting shots.

These little guys were at the reserve at Pauatahanui and there were heaps of them all over the bushes. I would have stayed out longer with them but the sun was going behind the clouds and because they are so small I needed the sun to highlight them in the shot. This won't be the last you see of damselflies here!

A day in Wairarapa

Last year I went on a damselfly hunt at Pauatahanui and I found several bright blue damselflies. I knew they came in different colours but I was surprised to see two different colours on the same trip in Wairarapa.

When I was a child my grandmother used to make floral arrangements with artificial flowers. They were all the rage at the time! She used to have me collecting up the small pinecones from the fir trees so she could use them in the arrangements. These tiny pinecones reminded me of those days past.

I can't help myself when it comes to reflections, as soon as I see something remotely like a reflection I just have to photograph it. With a little bit of magic they turn out like this one. The red is a reflection of some bright flowers on the edge of the pond.

 

I didn't have my tripod with me on this outing and I was surprised to be able to achieve these slow exposures hand held with my shakey hands.

Dragonflies and Damselflies

This morning I visited the Auckland Botanical Gardens as we had some time to spare before our flight home. We headed straight to the wetland area to see if there were any dragonflies about. There were too! However the dragonflies (larger than the damselflies) were hovering and flitting about way out of the reach of my lens. The damselflies were a bit easier. I spotted a little red one on a flower and it posed nicely for me.  The larger blue one (I think it is a damsel but it might be a small dragonfly) was much harder. He seems to flit about in a regular pattern and was very territorial. Very hard to photograph a moving object that never stays still!

Taking a break on a flower

Hovering over the water

Wings constantly moving!