The shape of the silhouette is familiar and if the lighting is bad, you might be able to convince yourself that a Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) is standing in the corner of a small pond at Green Spring Gardens. I have visited the pond dozens of times, so I know that the heron is not real, but it still makes for a fun subject to photograph.
I love the heron’s distorted reflection in the first photo and the touches of green provided by a small tree to the side and the duckweed floating on the surface of the water. I was equally thrilled when a male Blue Dasher dragonfly (Pachydiplax longipennis) perched on the heron’s head after I had moved in closer. I doubt that a real heron would have been quite as accommodating in permitting the dragonfly to perch and seem to recall having seen a Great Blue Heron attempt to snatch a dragonfly out of the air as it flew by.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
I don’t suppose the dragonfly was fooled, but I’m sure I could be, especially from a distance. Great photos, Mike.
Thanks, Dan. So many of the subjects I photograph, like eagles and dragonflies, have eyesight that is so much better than yours and mine. If they want to play hard to get, my chances of photographing them are sunk. As for perches, blue dashers will perch on almost anything, including human fingers. Here’s a link to a couple of photos I took a long time ago of one perching repeatedly on the index finger of one of my friends. https://cindydyer.wordpress.com/2012/08/13/michael-schwehr-the-dragonfly-whisperer/
We periodically toss a peanut out for a blue jay. I’ve seen one in my neighbor’s oak tree, about 30′ up and 80 feet from our walk, zoom in on a peanut and pick it up within seconds of it hitting the ground.
Thanks for the links.
Both are nice images, Mike. The stacked rocks make a nice addition to the first scene, too, along with the touches of green.
Thanks, Ellen. The stacked rocks are part of what I think is a kind of retaining wall. It is certainly nicer than a concrete barrier or some other kinds of walls they could have built.
Nice Mike! And you managed to get a Dragonfly in also!
Usually I go right to the heron’s head and wait for a dragonfly to perch, but this time I decided to back off and provide the big picture, which, in this case, I like a whole lot more than the dragonfly shot, which is kind of ordinary.
Laughed as soon as I read your “kind of ordinary” – there’s me gazing at the dragonfly and thinking how absolutely magic that shot is with the glistening, shining, sparkling creature! It’s like one of those gorgeous Swarovsky crystal ornaments 🙂
Like most folks, Liz, I tend to me overly critical of my own work, though I think I am getting better at accepting the reality that some of my photos are really good. In the US, individualism seems to be hyper stressed and with that inevitably comes a sense of competition. While competition can be good, it leads to an endless cycle of comparison with others to see if I am better or faster or richer. Maybe it’s a result of getting older, but increasingly I find that I don’t need any kind of comparison or any kind of external validation to feel good about myself. Now, I am happy when people “like” a posting that I do, but I don’t even think about that when deciding what to write. I have discovered that when I am most authentically myself in my writing, I tend to get more likes and comments. I’ve gone off on a tangent, so let me return to your comment–I love your comparison of the dragonfly with a Swarovski crystal ornament. During and extended part of my work life I used to go to Vienna, Austria a couple of times a year. I used to love to visit the Swarovski store there to marvel at all of the sparkling decorative pieces there, including some incredible chandeliers.
I like your tangents Mike! The competitive attitude you describe tends to go hand-in-hand with putting people in ‘boxes’ rather than seeing that everyone is on their own journey (and only at a certain stage in that journey). I wish I had understood these things a long time ago! It must have been a great treat to visit the Swarovski store multiple times, beautiful crystal and I imagine they have a display like no other 🙂
I included a photo of the Swarovski storefront in a posting I did of the lights of Vienna around Christmas time in 2018. The store was closed in the evening when I took the photo, but it gives you an idea of the elegance of the store. https://michaelqpowell.com/2018/12/17/night-lights-in-vienna/
Thank you Mike, I’d forgotten this particular photo. So elegant!
If there is a dragonfly, you are sure to spot it! 🙂
My eyes are calibrated, at least that is how is seems at times. 🙂
You mentioned that you moved in closer . . . from the reversed perspective of the heron’s head, I can’t help but wonder if you waded in behind it or scaled the rock and scrambled down its face to get into that position–or if you just reversed your image to make us wonder. BTW, Wait–I see now, in the double-blowup, that your dasher (or a close friend) is also in the same place there in your first image. Maybe you used a little drone?
Yikes, Gary, you examined the photo pretty carefully. The stacked rocks in the background look like they form a sheer wall, but in fact, they are a bit more like a terrace, albeit with each step only a foot or less in width. I walked the pond and climbed partly down the terrace until I was almost directly above the heron. The only challenge for me was making sure I did not lean too far forward in getting a shot or gravity might have taken over and deposited me into the pond. I have seen lots of cool drone footage, but don’t have one myself. Most of the places where I shoot don’t permit them, which on the whole is probably best for the safety of people and wildlife. Perhaps in places that are wide open it would be ok, but most of the places I go are in urban or suburban locations.