I made a Dragonfly friend today
Today's Dragonfly Friend In The Garden
It was bopping around the squash plants as I was scoping for shots and landed on one leaf giving a really cool kinda side profile shot (last pic below). I got shots from various angles and it didn't move but a few twitches. Not sure why really, but I stuck out my index finger and slowly put my pointed finer in front of it, about an inch away. It didn't move for a moment then it flew off the leaf and landed on my hand.
I love my Nikon and am really starting to look at other lenses. I have taken to setting my lens at max 140mm zoom and closest focus then I take shots at CL speed while moving my body to get the focus correct. This means lots of shit shots, but it also means I can get some really killer shots.
I am always a bit marveled, or maybe its astounded, whatever the feeling it is really cool how mellow the Dragonflies are around the farm. I moved my hand around and moved the camera around and it hardly moved, only turning to keep visual contact with me. It took my trying to put the Dragonfly on my oldest boy's shoulder before it had enough and flew off.
The color of the Dragonfly lends itself to blending in with the dead and dying foliage around the farm. Given the incredible numbers that are out right now it seems they don't have a lot of predators to reduce the numbers much. Not that I am arguing since I love them being around.
This was the initial landing place for the Dragonfly and it sat here through nearly a hundred shots before I poked my finger at it. Granted about 10% of my shots are good enough so I have to take that many to ensure I get something usable.
One dream I have for an app/program/service or whatever it would be, given the furtherance of high scale computing, is a way to ID flora and fauna based off of input images. Sort of a giant cross reference program, or AI, or maybe this would be good for quantum computing, I don't know. But to be able to take a picture and have it identify the subject to within a couple possibilities. Nothing I have heard of is really that good yet, at least in public accessible sense.
Check out my blog @flemingfarm
Fleming Family Farm
FLEMING FAMILY FARM, LLC
Sustainable & Organic Methods | Heirloom Produce
All images are original works of Fleming Family Farm unless otherwise notated and credited.
If you find this post useful or entertaining, your support is greatly appreciated by upvoting, resteeming, & following!
Join the SteemitHomesteaders Slack Channel! Image is Invite Link.
:) Nice photos! I think google it's trying to develop a similar app with what you're saying, identifying species based on input images
That is one of the ones I have heard of and there are a couple of others that I've seen mention of but had not seemed as far as google, but they also have infinite deep pockets.
Yeah, they do have a lot of funds
Those are some sweet photos @flemingfarm
Very nice pictures, thanks for sharing!
So sweet..Dragonflyes are the best... they also eat mosquitoes! :)
That's one of their best attributes, mosquito exterminators.
Man...how did you get it to stay so still while you took those epic shots?!
~ Kevin
I find the sunlight helps to keep em still, like a lizard sunning itself on a rock, they will hang out for a good while in the warmth. I also move really slowly, like trying to bypass a motion sensor. If I try, I can usually find one each sunny day that will be curious enough about me to chill for a bit.
Interesting, had no clue they worked like that! Thanks for the info :)
So amazing how it was just sitting on your hand! Maybe she knew you were not going to harm her and was just as curious about the huge creature as you were about her.
I like to think so. The slow movements seem to really help them stay calm and not so flighty too.
Pretty cool photos. How many mosquitos did this eat before you took his photo?