a while ago i found what i believe was an ebony jewelwing, but was unable to get a photo of it before i lost track of it, and have yet to see another as much as i have looked. anyone have tips on finding them? and photographing damselfies in general, especially if i dont have a camera on me and have to go with a phone camera
You want to find areas near water, during times of the year when they’re flying. Only having a phone camera is rough, a lot of Odonata are seriously flightly and can be hard to get good detail shots without a zoom lens or catching them. Think pond edges or small streams. Ebony jewelwings seem to like more wooded streams/ponds from my experience.
If you’re in Ohio, there is an extremely good Odonata project - https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/ohio-dragonfly-survey-ohio-odonata-survey
Damsels at least are probably easier to get photos of with a cel phone than some of the bigger dragonflies - stuff like darners are an absolute PITA to get good photos of because they are almost always zoomin.
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That is my experiene in North Carolina, too. I mainly see them along small streams that are completely shaded by continuous tree canopy. I don’t recall ever seeing them by still waters, only flowing, and only within a few feet of the stream.
I’ve seen ebony jewel wings in the woods 75 ft or more from a swamp, no running water nearby at all. Always in the shade though.
For the Midwest, it is getting late in the year for Ebony Jewelwings. Depending on what state you are in, you might need to wait until next year. We are past their late flight date in Ohio, but Familiar Bluets, Forktails, and Spotted Spreadwings should still be flying for a few weeks. Maybe some others if the weather holds. Familiar Bluets tend to like pond edges, and most spreadwings generally prefer shallow, fishless, well-vegetated wetlands.
As others have noted, Ebony Jewelwings like very shady habitat, including places too shady for any other damselflies. Think streams in dense forests.
It takes patience to get good damselfly photos with a camera phone. You might have more luck on cloudy days. They tend to sit still longer on cloudy days than bright sunny days. And try looking through dense vegetation around ponds or wetlands, especially early in the day. You might find damselflies sitting still in the vegetation and being more approachable than the ones at the water.
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I’ve never tried to photo damsels with a cell phone unless they were in hand. I can only imagine that it is pretty challenging to get one reasonably close and in focus when it’s perched. A bug net would be a good option if you are relying on a phone.
Even with a telephoto camera, damsels can be tough. I find that a 600mm telephoto (good for dragonflies and for birds) is overkill because you have to shoot the small bug from a greater distance than the damsel might allow you to approach, and the resulting photo is often not that good. A 200mm lens is probably a better option but I rarely carry one.
I used a 400mm telephoto to shoot these from a bridge:
my lens is a zoom that goes to 300mm and so far it’s been a fairly nice midrange lens for most things. It does struggle with really flightly birds and some of the larger dragonflies that fly away if you get closer than thirty feet from them.
That said, there are definitely better lenses for Odonata out there, especially the smaller damsels - I do struggle with some of the really tiny ones, though jewelwings aren’t too bad.
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All my photos on iNat are iPhone and almost all are handheld.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/47860872
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/230141790
I’ve recorded 9 species.
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Impressive! Maybe I’ll try my iPhone.
Thanks! It’s difficult at first, if I can do it, you can, too.
I became too disabled to carry and use my dslr, so HAD to learn iPhonography. There’s no “quit” in either being out in nature or recording what I see.
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new phones are actually getting pretty impressive, honestly. Though I’m suspect that some of them are using a bit too much AI upscaling sometimes.
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The main disadvantage is if the subject isn’t in a spot that you can easily get close to. The jewelwings I photo’d were down in a fairly deep ditch and were not accessible from the bank if all I had was my phone, so glad I had a telephoto. Many times I would’ve had to pass up a shot of an odonate if I didn’t have that SLR camera and lens.
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That’s true. I can’t show you all the things I can’t reach by cell phone, but better to stay in the game with ever-improving phone tech than on my couch disabled out…I will remain grateful for easily accessible lifeforms!
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And we users need better instructions on how to disable some of the automatic stuff that gets done. (and yes, you hear a high pitched whine of how much I miss the darkroom)
Back to topic…. For me, finding damselflies, like everything else, I use luck. I see most of mine in the untended garden, lots of small prey in there.