Brogborough Flying Insect Bonanza

Having used the Canon 100-400mm lens a few days back to record the flying insects of Brogborough Lake, mainly once they had settled for brief spells of rest and recuperation, I decided to return with something longer, and I decided that it might be beneficial not only to use the Sigma Sports 150-600mm, but to add their 1.4 Converter to gain a greater image size. Since the camera body was the EOS7D MkII, this in itself gave me a greater effective focal length over the full frame 5D MkIII, with also a faster response.

The slight drawback is the autofocus point is fixed at the centre, making it harder to place the subject off-centre, and so on occasion I reverted to manual focussing. Another snag when using autofocus, was how with moving reeds the focus would hunt or simply drift when foreground features came within view between the camera and subject. The bright weather we are experiencing currently gives me the chance to use the Converter and also to keep the ISO speed low with an adequately fast shutter speed.

Trying to find my subject fast with a long lens is difficult, so I experimented with pulling the focal length wider, to find my subject, then zooming in to bring it both larger and into focus, but this often meant that my subject had tired of that location and moved on whilst I was still either trying to find it or regain focus! From my observations the camera took less time and was more accurate, but suffered from losing focus fairly often, so I tended to attempt a compromise whilst manually focussing by adopting a smaller aperture to improve the depth of field to compensate for my lack of accuracy. It is not often in this country that we have this luxury; it is far more likely we are considering upping the ISO to give us a chance of a small aperture alongside a fast shutterspeed!

It allowed me to observe closely what was happening, and I am sure I was witnessing the female dragonflies laying her fertilised eggs beneath the water’s surface. Something else also was that much like crows mob red kite, I was watching the damselflies doing much the same with dragonflies.

I was sitting on a low bank with my tripod legs spread such that the camera was at eye level and really solid and this meant it was really comfortable, but did make it less easy when it came to later wishing to rise; I was also lucky for at the least the early part to be shaded from the heat of the sun under a blue sky with just a few mare’s tails for clouds, by a tall hawthorn bush to my left.

I was pleased with the end results, but it was a shame there was no regular flight path to give me the chance to attempt to preset my focus and have the insects fly into the sharp zone for them to be captured on the wing, but that’s just greed on my part!

Brogborough Hot Afternoon – Dragonflies Abound

Far too hot to be indoors, so in the afternoon, I resisted no more and grabbing my camera and the lenses most likely to come into service for capturing dragonflies, hopefully in flight, I set off for Brogborough lake. I chose the 100-400mm Canon lens with the 1.4 Converter and initially I mounted it on my lightweight Silk Road tripod with the gimbal head, but it was too restrictive so every so often I undid the quick release and worked handheld.

I also gave up the attempt to capture them in flight; they were far too energetic for that, and also far too erratic. Without consistency in flight I had no chance, so tried to find  the most likely spots for them to land and I spent more time watching than viewing in the camera, then moved to the most likely standpoints. The amount of activity waned for a period; so they do run out of steam! I now noted that a few were alighting on some of bricks and concrete presuming that the heat was restorative, so I was back into shooting mode, so I began to get a few shots in, but often at too far a distance, and working with the 1.4 converter meant the autofocus was hunting and on several occasions failed to lock on, so my overall success rate fell, but without the extra throw the distance meant heavy cropping.

I had opted for the full-frame 5D MkIII plus the converter, but perhaps the 7D MkII with hindsight might have been a better choice, I will try that combination to decide for the future – my life is full of compromises and experimentation, which has its fun moments. For the time spent, I was happy with the results.

Another Brogborough Lakeside Visit

The last time I visited the Brogborough Lake shoreline, I spotted a fleeting visit by a beautiful reddish Brown metallic looking dragonfly – fleetingly! Way too fast for me to get a shot. But it did make me feel I should try my best to find it or another at a later date. So having woken at six-twenty and dozed hoping to get back to sleep, in vain;  I gave in and got up, had a brief breakfast, filled a flask with a cold orange juice, put a 1.4 Converter on the 300mm lens on the 5D MkIII, and the 100mm Macro on the 7D MkII, and set off to the lock-up for my bike.

The original intention being to put the camera bag in the front basket of my push-bike, but that was wishful thinking, I had to settle with wrapping the 5D+300 carefully in a scarf and fortunately the other had a fitted case. Spare batteries and cards then went into my pockets, and I was ready to cycle.

It is hardly a marathon journey, but I am not a Chris Froome! On arrival at the lake side, I took to walking the bike though the long grass to go further along the shore than before, since that was where the elusive reddish Dragonfly had both come and returned, and I settled on the bank edge with a wide view either side hoping for some luck, but over an hour later I hardly seen anything of interest, when a young lady approached from beyond, so after exchanged greetings I enquired whether she had seen any reddish dragonflies, to which she replied that the dog was far too noisy and would have scared anything off! I stayed a while longer, but reasoned that if any were around she would still have seen them, so came closer to where I had been on the last occasion, and certainly this side of the bushes the wind was way less and the damselflies were in abundance and I spotted a lone dragonfly in the first minute.

My problem now was laying the bike down without losing the contents of the basket! Before I had at least got some fenceposts, but carefully re-arranging the contents so they would not spill out I soon managed a couple of shots of a golden coloured dragonfly, even a butterfly that was in better shape than the one I had captured previously. I got a few more damselflies, and was visited by a young Polish family whose son was taking a few photos, so I asked if they were luckier with reddish dragonflies to let me know as they were going further along in the direction from which I had returned. They came back very soon after and showed me a damselfly shot they had taken, so we swapped views and I showed them the dragonfly I had managed to capture, they then asked for directions to Woburn Abbey, and soon after I packed up and set off back to watch the Hungarian Grand Prix. The Race was not a match for the Practice and Qualifying, but I was happy with the result and seeing three separate battles was at least some recompense for a circuit where overtaking is a rarity.

A small gallery is the result of this visit, but not too exciting.

Brogborough Lake’s Fauna and Flora

On the last occasion I had been photographing the Windsurfers of Brogborough Lake, I was in a clearing above the water’s edge on the far side, and had been inundated with damselflies with only the very occasional dragonfly, so I was determined that I might take along the right lenses to be able to capture dragonflies this time around, as the wind was non-existent, so no activity from windsurfers.

I cycled over rather than use the car, and as I left the old A421 to head for Lidlington a broken branch was hanging halfway across the lane, so I laid the bike down and tried my best to push it clear of the highway, but it was not having it! I then flagged down passing motorist hoping one might have a knife so I could hack it back, but in the end a passing lady helped me to snap some of the lesser branches sufficiently to clear the road.

 I then thanked her and continued my journey to the gate into a field on the right where fortunately I was able to squeeze past, in the gap between the gate post and the trees to reach the water’s edge just beyond the windsurfing club.  I settled down close by the gate in the shade of a bush with the 100mm  macro on the 7D MkII and was soon visited fleetingly at first by numerous dragonflies, with only a very few damselflies and where I was on the bank there were wild flowers directly ahead of me which attracted a few bees every so often, so I had chosen well.

I saw a solitary reddish brown dragonfly, but it never came in close, nor did it land, whereas the blue-bodied ones often landed just a few feet away directly on the beach, and frustratingly were very much camouflaged by the scrubby detail of the ground which meant the detail of their wings were largely lost – I am tempted to find a small plank of weathered wood to bring with me next time and leave it at the right distance from where I sit to correct for that issue!

The bees were more amenable in that they were both closer and not fazed by my close presence, making them a far easier subject for me to capture. Since this area really belonged to the local anglers I was concerned when one came along that I might be kindly asked to leave, but I need not have worried, when I spoke to him, he was entirely happy for me to continue. Once the sun came around to beat down upon where I had been stationed, I called it a day and cycled back to Marston Moretaine.