Dragonfly face very, very, very close

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MacroMike
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Dragonfly face very, very, very close

Post by MacroMike »

Did I mention in the title that this was very close?

Another one from archivesl. Spring is just around the corner.

Dragonflies (and bees) have the largest compound eye of any insect. Unlike humans, day-flying species have 4 0r 5 opsins allowing them to see beyond our capabilities. The opsins are grouped in specific ways within small hexagonal packages called facets. Each eye contains up to 30,000 facets all pointing in a slightly different direction and perceiving light from only one area in space, creating a mosaic of partially overlapping images. They are segregated so that the upward facing eye portion has only blue and ultra violet receptors and the bottom portion only those of longer wavelengths like orange and green. This patterned concentration gives the dragonfly a special advantage while hunting. To them the sky appears very bright, providing a clear background against which small moving prey can easily be detected. Dusk-active dragonflies have sacrificed most of their color vision in favor of increased light collecting capacity by having fewer, but larger facets. They also lack all color sensitive opsins except green, which provides the broadest range of light sensitivity. Again unlike humans, dragonflies also detect the plane of polarization of light which they use as a sky compass for navigation. Dragonflies have a 360 degree field of view and can see in all directions at the same time. Which means they are still watching you after they have flown by.

Image

Hand held.
Canon 10D.
Canon 28-135mm in reverse.
Novoflex reversing adapter.
2X teleconverter.
36mm extension tube.
Canon MR-14EX TTL Ring Lite Flash .
ISO 400, F32, 1/200sec.
Levels and unsharp mask in Photoshop.
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Ken Ramos
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Post by Ken Ramos »

This shot reminds me of myself many many years ago, when I yelled down the bar and told the big guy down at the end, what a horses butt he was! :shock: Fat lip, swollen eyes, you get the picture. Of course I am much wiser now and not near as tuff or brave as I was back then :wink:

A wonderful image here Mike and an interesting narrative. The eyes of these insects are quite fascinating. 8)
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Post by rjlittlefield »

Mike, great picture and interesting discussion. I went looking for some further information on this topic and quickly ran into http://research.amnh.org/users/nyneve/dragonflies.html. The text has some striking similarities to yours. Are you aware of this source? Do you have other links that might provide even better information?

Thanks much,
--Rik

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Post by Ido T »

Amazing picture!

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Post by MacroMike »

Rick, that article bears an amazing similarity to my narrative. I actually composed this about 2 years ago from multiple written publications on insects. None of the consultants credited in the article appear to be mentioned in those that I still have.

I remember at the time thinking how some of our community friends who only do macro photography as a hobby, captured significantly better images than many of those in the books.

I also recall that different authors stated varying numbers of opsins and facets as well as the wave length sensitivity. I guess it is all supposition and until we can "put on a dragonfly's shoes" nobody will really be certain exactly how they see.

What's not mentioned in the article is that the 3 small circles above the dragonfly's "nose" are also eyes. They are believed to be used to sense the onset of dusk.
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Post by rjlittlefield »

MacroMike wrote:that article bears an amazing similarity to my narrative. I actually composed this about 2 years ago from multiple written publications on insects. None of the consultants credited in the article appear to be mentioned in those that I still have.
Fascinating! Is there such a thing as convergent evolution of text?
MacroMike wrote:I remember at the time thinking how some of our community friends who only do macro photography as a hobby, captured significantly better images than many of those in the books.
I've seen this too. It's surprising at first, but it makes sense. The professional presumably has more experience, training, and better hardware than most hobbyists. But a devoted hobbyist may be as well equipped in those areas as the professional, and in addition the hobbyist can spend way more time on a particular task than a professional could justify. "Time is money!", and so on...
MacroMike wrote:I also recall that different authors stated varying numbers of opsins and facets as well as the wave length sensitivity. I guess it is all supposition and until we can "put on a dragonfly's shoes" nobody will really be certain exactly how they see.
Yep, and maybe not even then.

It would seem that we humans are uniquely well positioned to study human vision, but there are still broad areas where we don't even understand enough yet to be confused. It's easy enough to imagine posting an image, asking some automated guru "What is this?", and getting back a coherent answer. But the folks in the computer vision research labs still have little if any clue how to make that actually happen.

I don't think we need to worry about running out of mysteries for a while. :D

--Rik

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Post by Bald Eagle »

I have always been fascinated by these guys, this one looks very similar to the one I took last year, great work on this one. :D :D :D
Always look at Nature with wide eyes.
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MikeBinOKlahoma
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Post by MikeBinOKlahoma »

Now that is CLOSE! Very impressive.

I didn't know that Canon EF lenses could be used reversed--I thought that the electronic controls wouldn't let things work. Do I understand that you just have the 28-135 lens on backwards, but no other lens here?!
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Post by biawak »

Nice shot, Mike. It's not easy shooting hand-held at such magnifications.
I did a similar shot once and then cropped the middle part of the face to make it an abstract :D
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Post by MacroMike »

Mike B. wrote:
I didn't know that Canon EF lenses could be used reversed--I thought that the electronic controls wouldn't let things work. Do I understand that you just have the 28-135 lens on backwards, but no other lens here?!
Sharing is exactly what our little community is all about. I guess it's my turn now.

Novoflex has a reversing adapter that allows Canon EF lenses to be attached in reverse while maintaining transfer of all lens information to the body. It was designed for a 28-105mm, but with step up/down rings I've also used it on my 28-135mm, 50mm and 28mm. How does 7X magnification at 28mm sound?

The adapter's picture and information can be viewed on B&H's following link:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/control ... ype=search
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MikeBinOKlahoma
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Post by MikeBinOKlahoma »

Velly interesting....Thanks, Michael!
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Post by biawak »

My, it's an expensive gadget, isn't it?

We could probably figure our a way to make one for a lot less (although the quality may be questionable).
A combination of used/broken EOS body, regular reverse adapter, some cables can be used, I would think.
Maybe a used auto extension tube with the necessary contacts can also be used for the bayonet mount.

7x magnification with the subject a few mm away from the back element of your lens?
Sounds daunting!
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MikeBinOKlahoma
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Post by MikeBinOKlahoma »

biawak wrote:My, it's an expensive gadget, isn't it?
Looks like it is about halfway to an MP-E-65. But I imagine this would be handy for someone who owned a 28-135 already, and carried it hiking and such.
Mike Broderick
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Post by MacroMike »

Biawak wrote:
7x magnification with the subject a few mm away from the back element of your lens?
Sounds daunting!
Knowledge of insect behavior and infinite patience are indispensable when attempting this magnification on a live, unchilled, uncaged elusive critter. I was able to capture this one and another overhead view on 2 separate occasions.

The second was obtained on an early morning at the end of Autumn in Florida. The subject camped out for the night at the end of a porter weed stem and was simply unable to fly until late morning when the sun got it's metabolism going.

The first (this one) was accomplished during the summer. The subject was a severely territorial critter that continuously returned to it's perch on a Mexican petunia. It took many attempts and lots of patience. I held my camera with the end of the lens about an inch of where I hoped it's head would appear. I staid still as possible becoming part of the landscape. Each time I got just one OOF shot before it took flight again. Eventually it patrolled the area and landed almost perfectly positioned right in front of the lens.

Mike B. wrote:
Looks like it is about halfway to an MP-E-65. But I imagine this would be handy for someone who owned a 28-135 already, and carried it hiking and such.
My very first higher magnification images were obtained using a Canon G2 with a 50mm lens in reverse and no electronic feedback to the camera. When I stepped up to the 10D, I was used to the method. Basically this does turn the 28-135mm in to a handy high magnification zoom lens similar to the MP-E-65 and the 2X teleconverter provides a bit of extra working distance.
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Erland
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Post by Erland »

great photo, great dragonfly :-)
The green coloration makes me guess it's a Eastern Pondhawk.

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