A Day of Demoiselles

After reviewing my photos from my last post and a look on the internet for new ideas on how to capture these shots, I decided to have another visit to the stream at Nethergong where I spent an hour trying to find a few larger Banded Demoiselles. It took the best part of an hour before I finally managed to capture a near fully grown Banded Demoiselle nymph which measured 30mm, 10mm of this being the length of the caudal lamellae. I had already spent some time earlier in the day giving the tank a good clean and finding a variety of leaves which would be soaked and used as a background if needed. I decided to try that evening for a few photos but despite a good try, I really could not get the background colour right to show off the subject and so with this in mind, I decided to have another go first thing in the morning where the light would be much better. I was up and ready to photograph by 9am where in the conservatory, the sun was shining and warming up nicely and after getting everything into position, I was again looking to improve upon my shots. After taking a number of photos but the background not being quite as I liked, I thought I would use the sandy colour on the back of one of the table place mats. I rested it up against the back of the tank and using manual mode, f4 - f8, ISO 400 and speed set to 200 and some in camera flash, I then set about taking a number of very pleasing photos which seemed to work well with my choice of background. I may even go as far to say that these may be the best set of nymph photos I have taken to date.

Banded Demoiselle Nymph

This may be however due to the homework I did on settings and background but it just goes to show what can be achieved with a bit of patience and time. I also made time to watch and study the nymph and it was quite apparent that it spent most of the time moving like a Jack Snipe. For those that don't know, it seemed to have a bouncing up and down motion and slowly walked forward doing this. Maybe the moving up and down helps with the breathing or just a mechanism to avoid detection amongst the underwater weeds.

Banded Demoiselle Nymph

It was also noted that every few steps, it would pause and using its front pair of legs, spend some time cleaning and wiping the tips of the antennae. As it often moved, the abdomen would be raised in the air quite high and ever so slowly when relaxed, moved down to ground level. As well as taking the photos, I make sure I find the time to put the camera down and actually study the markings and try to learn something new about each species I collect. Hopefully in this way, I will continue to learn and expand my knowledge. Weather permitting, a few more visits out soon to see what I can collect and photograph before the season really gets going. 

Banded Demoiselle Nymph