walter sanford's photoblog

A Wandering Glider (Pantala flavescens) odonate exuvia was received from Andy Davidson, a graduate student at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia USA. Sincere thanks to Andy for sharing this beautiful specimen!

The exuvia is a “cast skin” from a nymph that was collected in the field and reared in the laboratory as part of a research project entitled “Predator-Prey Interactions in a Changing World.”

Wandering Glider (Pantala flavescens) | exuvia (dorsal)

Test shots of the specimen were taken using a relatively small aperture of f/16 for greater depth of field. Each photo is a “one-off,” that is, not a composite image. Focus stacks will be created sometime in the near future, after the exuvia is rehydrated and posed for better composition.

Wandering Glider (Pantala flavescens) | exuvia (ventral)

Related Resources

• Precious cargo, a blog post by Walter Sanford. (Hey, that’s me!)
• Test shots: Erythemis simplicicollis evuvia
• Test shots: Pachydiplax longipennis exuvia

Tech Tips

The following equipment was used to shoot both of the macro photographs featured in this post: Fujifilm X-T1 digital camera; Fujifilm MCEX-11 extension tube; and Fujinon XF80mm macro lens. The camera was set for both manual exposure and manual focus. That’s right, a switch on the camera body is used to set the type of focus. It’s a Fujifilm thing. Actually, back-button focus was used to autofocus the image and adjusted manually as necessary. That’s also a Fujifilm thing. For details, see “More Tech Tips” (below).

A Godox XProF radio flash trigger, mounted on the hotshoe of my X-T1, was used to control a pair of off-camera Godox TT685 Thinklite TTL Flashes (TT685F and TT685C) set for radio slave mode. Each flash was fitted with a snap-on plastic diffuser.

Adobe Photoshop CC 2017 was used to spot-heal and sharpen both images.

More Tech Tips

Focus peaking can be activated when the camera is set for manual focus mode. Using back-button focus (AF-L button) in manual mode enables one to retain full control of the exposure triangle, focus quickly, and see what’s in focus before shooting a photograph. Fuji Back Button Focus (4:06), a YouTube video by Ashraf Jandali, provides a clear demonstration of how to use back-button focus on the Fujifilm X-T1.

Copyright © 2018 Walter Sanford. All rights reserved.

Tags: exuvia, Family Libellulidae (Skimmers), gear talk, James River, Pantala flavescens, Wandering Glider dragonfly

This entry was posted on November 14, 2018 at 4:00 am and is filed under Aperture, digital photography, dragonflies, extension tubes, Fujifilm X-T1, Fujinon XF80mm macro lens, Godox TT685C, Godox TT685F, Godox XProF, How To, macro photography, natural science, Photoshop, wildlife photography. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.