# Drove 4,000 miles in a week and all I brought home was this lousy photo.



## JustJazzie (Jul 14, 2014)

Last week was a mess! Due to a family emergency we drove down to Florida and spent more time in the car than we actually did in Florida. I didn't get a SINGLE photo of the beach. My husbands grandma's house has 3 ponds in the backyard and is just infested with bugs. Unfortunately, its also so shaded I had to be at iso 1600-6400 To even attempt any pictures. I also don't have a macro lens and trying to crop down when shooting my iso that high was a DISASTER! Im actually embarrassed with how bad most of the pictures turned out.

Here is the only picture that came out half decent. I caught it as we were getting in the car ready to head home. I had much higher hopes for these since I took at least 20 shots of this guy, and they looked pretty good on the LCD.

Troubles included: BRIGHT hot spot on the metal right below where he landed, I had to crop it out which seems to ruin the composition. He eventually flew onto a tall leaf, but since it was windy every time I focused the wind blew him out of the focus plane. Living in the west my entire life, I have NEVER seen a dragon fly this large. In fact, after some research, I am not sure I have even ever seen a dragon fly. Im pretty sure the ones I have seen out here are damesfly's. Anyways, Since this was the only shot that came out from the entire trip I figured I would share it, to make myself feel better about my failure. :Giggle: Honestly, I feel like 90% of my failures lately could be remedied with just a little more time to focus on the shot. That is probably my own fault though. Time to SLOW down I think.

C&C welcome and appreciated


----------



## Parker219 (Jul 14, 2014)

Well, like you said,  its not an amazing shot by any means, but not the worst either. 

Obviously the image quality could be better, but dragonflies can be tough to shoot.

I guess I got lucky when recently a dragonfly was perfectly still for 3 minutes straight and let me get 1 inch away from him!

Keep at it.


----------



## IzzieK (Jul 14, 2014)

Jazzie...I am sorry for you, high hopes and all. Life sometimes get in the way. With Florida's abundance of things and places to shoot, it too late now to wish and regret. Just move on and give us something around the place where you live. I am sure that will make up for lost shots.

P..S...any news update yet about your camera store problems???


----------



## JustJazzie (Jul 14, 2014)

Parker219 said:


> Well, like you said,  its not an amazing shot by any means, but not the worst either.  Obviously the image quality could be better, but dragonflies can be tough to shoot.  I guess I got lucky when recently a dragonfly was perfectly still for 3 minutes straight and let me get 1 inch away from him!  Keep at it.


That is lucky! This guy was actually pretty still when on the metal pole, it just didn't make for a good foreground.




IzzieK said:


> Jazzie...I am sorry for you, high hopes and all. Life sometimes get in the way. With Florida's abundance of things and places to shoot, it too late now to wish and regret. Just move on and give us something around the place where you live. I am sure that will make up for lost shots.  P..S...any news update yet about your camera store problems???



Thanks! You win some, you loose some I suppose. Especially when your subjects have wings. ;-)

No word from the store, I'm sure I have heard the last I will hear about it all. I highly doubt I will get a refund. 

On the bright side, I went to best buy for my new camera. The customer service was EXCELLENT. I had a coupon that I didn't know wouldn't work on nikon dslr's. When I said I would just order online, they price matched the lens kit, at the body only price and gave me free shipping! So I'm behind on my camera return, but came out more than ahead with best buy!


----------



## astroNikon (Jul 14, 2014)

4,000 miles?  Where did you go ?

Good to hear you got your camera at Best Buy.
I bought my Nikon d7000 there back in November 2012.  Great service. They price matched Nikonusa.com which had an online sale going on for a couple hundred less I think because they just announced the d7100.


I tried shooting butterflies at a botanical garden last month.  Talk about a wasted effort :thumbdown: ...


----------



## SnappingShark (Jul 14, 2014)

You got the D7100 Jazzie?


----------



## astroNikon (Jul 14, 2014)

BrightByNature said:


> You got the D7100 Jazzie?


She returned it for a Canon ...


----------



## JustJazzie (Jul 14, 2014)

astroNikon said:


> 4,000 miles?  Where did you go ?  Good to hear you got your camera at Best Buy. I bought my Nikon d7000 there back in November 2012.  Great service. They price matched Nikonusa.com which had an online sale going on for a couple hundred less I think because they just announced the d7100.  I tried shooting butterflies at a botanical garden last month.  Talk about a wasted effort :thumbdown: ...


Long story short, a family member was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. We had his daughter for the summer, so we had to get her home. We were in Palm Coast, FL,



BrightByNature said:


> You got the D7100 Jazzie?





astroNikon said:


> She returned it for a Canon ...



:giggle: 

I had a d7100, seemed to have a sensor issue, so I returned it. Thought I was going to get a canon, ended up getting another nikon.


----------



## SnappingShark (Jul 14, 2014)

Well, if you need lenses - I got a bunch for sale! lol

But good choice on the Df (seen in another thread!), hope it gives you all you need and more!


----------



## astroNikon (Jul 14, 2014)

A Df?    You have my head spinning from the  about faces  lol


----------



## Actinia (Aug 9, 2014)

You might quibble with the aesthetics, but its a good shot of the dragonfly!


----------



## annamaria (Aug 9, 2014)

I'm no expert, but the face of the dragonfly looks good to me, and he's a cutie, of course I'm looking at it using my tab.


----------

