Flying Dragons

Forgive the post title, I just couldn't come up with interesting names to call this post. There was a state-wide blackout yesterday that lasted for around six hours and even more in other places as the power was restored in stages. As chaos had surely ensued within the city, I was left completely bored and without anything to do. I set out once again with my camera into the garden. Just as I wondered if there was anything interesting to take photos of, a dragonfly caught my attention as it flew around and perched itself on the branches of a dead plant which had more dragonflies.

Its times like these that make me wish I had a macro lens. The few dragonflies that were sitting on those branches didn't scare too easily and they just sat there the whole time I was taking photos, even when I got really close with the lens. These photos were all shot at f/8 to try and get more of them in focus. 

An interesting thing I found was that auto focus in situations like these where there are plenty of other objects such as branches or leaves in the frame which are high in contrast can be a challenge for the 6D. Whether using the center AF point or selecting all of them was really difficult to pinpoint towards any of the dragonflies as it tends to back focus instead towards the bush in the background.

The only solution I came up with was to get really close and select the center AF point as well as filling most of the center frame with the subject, making it easier for the AF system with just a slight adjustment with the FTM focus ring as I switched angles.