Getting these photos of a woodpecker catching dragonflies was a real stroke of luck! I had a tip that this was a good place to find snakes swimming on the lake.
I didn’t see any snakes that day but suddenly this little fellow landed a few yards away on a branch in a tree right next to me.
I had been trying to get some good photos of a woodpeckers cause to me it is one of the prettiest birds we have here and for weeks I had no luck. That is one of the most rewarding things with wildlife photography, when you least expect it mother nature surprises you like this 🙂
I had no time to fiddle with the settings and just a few seconds to take some quick handheld shots. They ended up with ISO 12800 but thanks to DxO Raw I was able to still get some good results.
This image was captured a bit later in the year in the peak of the mating season. I had been walking the local woods ‘Ravnskoven’ where I could hear there where at least one woodpecker in the neighborhood.
I finally got lucky and found the nest where an adult couple was flying to and from, taking turns to feed the chicks.
This allowed me to set up my tripod and test my latest addition to my gear, a Sirui Gimbal head, and it did not dissapoint. Having that gimbal made it easy to sit for hours and have the camera and the heavy Sigma 150-600mm perfectly balanced pointing at the nest ready to take the shot when the woodpeckers landed.
Unfortunately I didn’t manage to get a shot of the chicks being fed, hopefully next year the pair will return and I can try my luck again.
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