I was really happy to spot a couple of male Calico Pennant dragonflies (Celithemis elisa) during a visit today to Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge in Woodbridge, Virginia. The weather was pretty cool when I set out early this morning, about 56 degrees (13 degrees C), so I was not certain that I would be able to find many dragonflies. Fortunately for me it warmed up a bit and a few dragonflies appeared.
The bright red color of this dragonfly helps a little in finding them, but Calico Pennants are pretty small and it is easy to lose them in the vegetation. I shot the first two shots with my Canon 50D DSLR and Tamron 150-600mm telephoto zoom lens and the third one with my Canon SX50 super zoom camera. The poses are not identical, but I think that you can see how much shallower the depth of field is when using the DSLR than the point-and-and-shoot—I think it is related to the difference in the size of the sensors in the cameras.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Mike Powell 
You would be completely beside yourself in coastal Texas right now. Whatever else Hurricane Harvey’s rains did, they’ve brought out the dragonflies: big ones, little ones, blue, green, orange, and brown ones. It’s a dragonfly lover’s heaven right now — if only we could get rid of the mosquitoes.
If I put aside thoughts of the hurricane’s devastation, that sounds amazing!
Excellent!
[…] Male Calico Pennant Dragonfly | Sept 9, […]