DRAGONFLIES ON THE WING
Actions captured with a huge 400 mm f/2.8 lens
The 400mm f / 2.8 is a heavy, very bulky and horribly expensive lens. It is the opposite of compact and lightweight macro lenses and one must be crazy to try to photograph insects with such a telephoto lens! Well, as a provocation, I invested a lot of time to adapt my high-speed tools to the Nikkor AFS VR 400mm f / 2.8G. I suggest that you follow me in the field, with the big 400 mm, to take shots of subjects for which this lens has not been designed: the dragonflies.
High-end telephoto lens Nikkor AFS VR 400 mm f/2.8G equipped with his double hood and RRS plate.
A STUNNING BOKEH !
When I chose the 400 mm f/2.8, I’d hoped to discover new atmospheres created by the combination of natural light and flash. My work in the field showed that the qualities of the high-speed 24x36 camera body were closely linked with those of the lens. The ISO setting became an exposure parameter in the same way as the aperture and shutter speed. I therefore selected speeds of between 200 and 1600 ISO without worrying about image quality. This allowed me to concentrate on the backgrounds when using mixed lighting. An outstanding bokeh is not just down to lens quality. You also need to choose the viewpoint carefully to magnify the background. It’s important that the background should be made up of elements at different distances behind the subject in focus to avoid images that are to smooth and uniform. The back-lighting is very interesting as it produces particularly graphic transitions in the blurred areas.
Compared to a standard macro lens, the 400 mm f/2.8 allows you to use a wider frame without having a problem in highlighting the main subject. This is extremely useful in taking photos of insects in flight. As in sports photography, fast action is made clearer if the framing leaves space in the direction in which the subject is moving. It places the animal in its environment and helps to give a clearer understanding of which way the dragonfly is moving. We too often tend to link lenses directly with a single use or specific subjects. In practice, photography doesn’t comply with and standards: anything is possible, the only limit being the photographer’s imagination. It’s also fascinating to explore new avenues, such as that of placing an enormous 400 mm in front of little dragonflies in flight.
