When I am capturing wildlife images, I am usually driven by multiple motivations that sometimes come in conflict with each other. On the one hand, I am trying to capture reality, to record the presence of a given subject in a way that makes it recognizable and identifiable. On the other hand, I am trying to create art, by choosing compositional elements and camera settings that make an image that is visually pleasing to me.
At this time of the year, dragonflies become one of my favorite subjects and I eagerly await the emergence of new species as we move deeper into spring and eventually into summer. This past Monday at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, I noted that Spangled Skimmer dragonflies (Libellula cyanea) are now with us. This species is pretty easy to identify because it is the only local species that has black and white stigmas—stigmas are the narrow rectangular patches of color that can be found on the front edges of the wings.
In the first image, a male Spangled Skimmer was pretty cooperative and let me capture one of my favorite type of dragonfly images—a head-on shot. In this kind of shot, the dragonfly’s body is almost always out of focus, but I am ok with that, because it forces the viewer to focus on the dragonfly’s amazing eyes.
The dragonfly in the second shot, which is an immature male Spangled Skimmer, had flown into a tree after I inadvertently spooked it. I loved the way that it was clinging to a branch. Shooting at an upward angle, I tried to simplify the background to draw attention to the branches as well as to the dragonfly. (As is often the case with dragonflies, immature male Spangled Skimmers initially have the coloration of adult females—eventually the dragonfly in the second photo will look like the one in the first image.)
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
That bottom shot is simply breathtaking! The lighting and composition is wonderful!
Thanks, Cindy. You immediately focused on the artistic elements of that shot, which make really make the image stand out. Others might choose to note that it is not quite sharp. It is sort of like the scoring for figure skating, in the sense that the overall score is a combination of a technical score plus another score for “artistic impression.” 🙂
While condensing the content of this post for Benjamin, I made sure to read about the stigmas on the wings. He likes that word as it is new to him, but guaranteed he will remember the word and what it means. Benjamin examined both enlarged photos before commenting. He said of the first photo : “I love his big eyes and legs holding on the stick.” As soon as he saw the second photo : “Wow, I love the yellow stripe all the way from his head to his tail.” Pointing to the wings, he said : “These are the stigmas on the pretty wings, I love Dragonflies.” Being Benjamin, he noticed the red spot on the branch and asked : “Is that red thing a bud?” We enjoyed our morning lessen. Thank-you, Mr. Mike!!
Very nice Mike.
Stunning Mike! The wings shimmer in the light.
Thanks, Chris. When dragonflies first emerge, their wings are really transparent and very fragile (and at that stage of development they are extremely vulnerable). I was happy when I was able to capture this image in some beautiful light.