I have always been fascinated by dragonflies... for as long as I can remember.
I do not really know why. Maybe, as a child, watching the dragonflies zap around in high speed had me in awe. And I could never get close enough to take a real good look at it or to be able to pick one up. So that added to the amazement of it all. And, for some reason, whenever I see dragonflies, I would feel happy.
These dragonflies never fail to bring a smile to my face.
Anyway, I started taking a few nature photos in the late 1990's. Back then, I had only an SLR camera, one of the Canon EOS models. But in recent years, I have not been taking too many pictures of anything because it was inconvenient.
The inconvenience of buying the films and later, getting them developed. When I moved to Langkawi several years ago, there were a limited number of print shops in town.
And each time you go get the films, you had to decide whether 24 exp or 36 exp? Or maybe 12 exp? Who is to know how many photos I am going to take? And whenever I don't finish the whole roll of film in one go, I never know when I'll be taking more photos and when will I get them developed? I did not want to waste the unused films. So it sometimes sits there for months and months before I finally get it to the shop.
By then, you could never remember exactly what photos you have taken. Sometimes you get a few disappointments because you thought you had taken a good photo of some insect or the sunset or something and it didn't turn out as good. And sometimes, you get a few surprises, which is always great!
Those compact "point and shoot" digital cameras that are easily affordable, had never appealed to me. They may have more standard features than the Canon EOS 300 but... And I had always liked the shutter sound you get when you took a shot. So I stuck to my SLR and took less and less photos of anything.
One day, I got tired of lugging around the SLR and lens whenever you're travelling. It can be quite a bulky load when the amount of space in your hand luggage is precious. So I started thinking maybe I should get a compact digital camera after all.
And yet... I love my 100-300mm zoom and wouldn't be willing to spend a huge sum of money on a good DSLR and a set of zoom to go. I did not consider myself a serious enough photographer to want to spend all that money on the whole set up and then maybe leaving it to rot.
Later, I started talking to a few photographers I'd met. An acquaintance mentioned the Panasonic Lumix with 18x zoom. He does wildlife photography and still has his SLR but seldom use it these days. As he says, he has "converted", unless he is on a "photography expedition".
That started me on a quest to look for a digital camera that would have the zoom capabilities I wanted and not burn a big hole in my pockets. It took me a few months of searching and checking things out. I thought I had decided on the Panasonic Lumix; and then I was being fickle and thought maybe, just maybe, I should just spend a bomb on a complete set of DSLR and lens and be done with. But this would mean I am back to square one with lugging them everywhere!
Anyway, I finally bought one of the newer Canons early this year. A Powershot. Finally.
Took me a bit of time figuring things out. Yes, I am a late starter when it comes to digital camera technology! But I now carry my camera with me almost everywhere.
So there was this one day when I was sitting in my car and was about to drive off when I saw... dragonflies!
Out came the camera.
Of the dozen or so shots I took of the dragonflies, three turned out great! And one particular shot was just amazing... to me!
So... now I am really hooked!
...on dragonflies!
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