Some of the species of birds and dragonflies with the word “common” in their names are quite rare in my area. However, Common Baskettail dragonflies (Epitheca cynosura) have been quite common this month and I have seen them at a number of different locations, most notably at the small ponds that I like to visit. At these ponds, I usually spot the Common Baskettails as they conducted repeated low patrols over the surface of the water and I can never resist the chance to photograph them while they are in flight.
As I have noted in the past, it is very challenging to photograph a dragonfly while it is flight. Sometimes the dragonflies will hover a bit, giving me a better chance of getting them in focus, but often they whiz on by and I try to track them in my viewfinder. Occasionally I will manage to use auto-focus, but often I resort to manual focus, which, of course, is tough with a moving subject. I try to determine the flight track they are using and identify likely areas that they will pass through and then pre-focus on that area and wait for them to come by. Needless to say, you have to be very patient and persistent if you want to try this kind of photography.
I captured the first two shots at a small pond in Prince William County and was quite pleased with the images. The two shots were taken as part of a sequence and are quite similar with the exception of the position of the wings. Normally I am so thrilled to get a sharp shot that I am not concerned about the wing position, but in this case I had the luxury of having several variants of essentially the same shot.
The final two shots were taken at the pond at Jackson Miles Abbott Wetland Refuge. There was vegetation surrounding the water at the spot where I was standing and it sometimes would obstruct my view as I tried to track the dragonfly. In the third photo, I used one of the offending pieces of vegetation as a compositional element that makes it look like the dragonfly was approaching a finish line tape.
I included the final photo to give you a sense of the habitat. In several areas of the pond there were patches of lily pads and I tried to capture shots of the dragonfly flying over the lily pads. I was largely unsuccessful, but the photo gives you an idea of what I was trying to accomplish. (If this were a shot of a bird, it would definitely qualify as “butt shot,”but I am not sure that you can really say that a dragonfly has a “butt.”)
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Mike Powell 