Chrysalis

@ biosparite:

those are some pictures grrlscientist has posted that you took. i'm camera and photographically challenged, but what kind of camera(s) are you using?

(and how do you get dragonflies and butterflies to sit still and pose when you are that close? do you train them to do that? ;))

"some excellent pictures"

(i'm also adjectively challenged)

Jamie,
The camera is a Fuji Finepix S-5200, which I like and which is relatively inexpensive ($359 or so with a decent-sized flashcard) (I'm not sure flashcard is the right word anymore). I think the color saturation/fidelity are excellent with this camera. It also has a crisp, telephoto macro zoom that allows one to stand off a bit from the subject. My only complaint is that LCD screens do not serve as even a poor substitute for a bright SLR focusing mirror and that one's ability to take effective, manual control of focus is, therefore, severely compromised. Also this and many other digital point-'n'-shoots will not reach out and grab some of the thinnest damselflies or smallest bees. But I still manage. I am tempted to say I put a hoodoo on my subjects to freeze them, but it is really just patience and determination. One excellent feature of Finepix digital cameras that I have handled is that one can crop the photo using the camera software on the camera's LCD screen. I also must salute the professionalism of the Fuji marketing folks in Dallas, who not only talked with me at length about their products but also lent me by mail a Finepix S-5000 last year when local photoshops in Houston did not have a display model for me to play with. I am now contemplating the purchase of a Fuji digital SLR with some various lenses.