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Blue-faced mating

Posted in Dragonflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Blue-faced Meadowhawk, Blue-faced Meadowhawk dragonfly, Canon 50D, dragonflies mating, Huntley Meadows Park, Sympetrum ambiguum, Tamron 180mm on September 13, 2016| 6 Comments »

Most of the Blue-faced Meadowhawk dragonflies (Sympetrum ambiguum) yesterday at Huntley Meadows Park were perched alone in the bright sunlight, but some of them managed to find mates and were “getting busy.” No matter how many times I have seen this behavior, I continue to be amazed by the unusual and acrobatic method that dragonflies use when mating.

I usually start to see the brightly-colored Blue-faced Meadowhawks in early September, at a time when the overall number of dragonflies is declining and they are one of the signs for me of the end of the summer. This species seems to be generally tolerant of my presence, although some individuals are quite skittish, and I have managed to get some close-up shots of them in the past.

Don’t be surprised to see more photos of the Blue-faced Meadowhawks in upcoming weeks—they are one of my favorite species of dragonflies.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Tiny butterfly in Brussels

Posted in Butterflies, Flowers, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, Travel, tagged botanical garden of Brussels, Brussels Belgium, butterfly, Canon SX50 on September 12, 2016| 6 Comments »

It doesn’t really matter where I am—if I see a butterfly, I am almost certainly going to chase after it with the hope of capturing an image. That was certainly the case last week in Brussels when I spotted this tiny butterfly and managed to take this shot of it.

As some of you may recall, I am now using a superzoom Canon SX50 when I am travelling. I haven’t used it very often, so I am still learning its capabilities and limitations. I am pretty happy with the way the camera was able to capture some of the small details of this butterfly, including its extended proboscis, and the way that it rendered the out of focus flowers in the background. I am not ready to give up my DSLR, but I will certain consider taking the SX50 with me on those occasions when I just don’t feel like hauling my DSLR and multiple lenses.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Dragonflies in Brussels

Posted in Dragonflies, Insects, Nature, Photography, Travel, tagged Aeshna mixta, botanical garden of Brussels, brussels, Brussels Belgium, Canon SX50, dragonflies, dragonfly, Migrant Hawker on September 8, 2016| 11 Comments »

Today was a beautiful sunny day in Brussels, Belgium and I had some free time to explore the city. I have been in Brussels for short business trips a number of times in recent years and have already visited many of the attractions in the center of the city. Today I decided to look for some of the kinds of wildlife that I love to photograph, so I made my way to a park that leads to the Botanical Garden of Brussels.

I was encouraged a little when I saw some ducks and turtles in the small pond there and my level of excitement really soared when I spotted some dragonflies flying about. The only problem was that the dragonflies refused to land. When I have my normal DSLR and my favorite lenses, I’ll try to capture in-flight shots, but when I am traveling for work, I tend to leave all that gear at home and use a point-and-shoot camera. My current travel camera is a Canon SX50. It has an amazing zoom lens, but really is not responsive enough to photograph moving dragonflies.

A bit later, I made my way to the opposite side of the tiny pond and discovered the staging area for the dragonflies. Every now and then a dragonfly would perch very briefly on the vegetation. It took quite a few tries, but eventually I got a few shots. I don’t know anything about European dragonfly species, so I can’t really identify the ones that I photographed today. They look pretty similar to ones that I have seen at home and certainly they belong to the same families, but I’d sure welcome assistance in identifying the species.

Today was a day full of unexpected treats. I don’t expect to see bright days full of sunshine during trips to Europe and I didn’t really expect to find dragonflies in Brussel’s urban center.

UPDATE: I have done a bit more research on the internet and it looks to me like the dragonflies in the first two photos below may be Migrant Hawkers (Aeshna mixta).

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Upside-down butterfly

Posted in Butterflies, Insects, Nature, Photography, tagged Canon 50D, Fort Belvoir VA, Jackson Miles Abbot Wetlands Refuge, Limenitis arthemis, Red-spotted Purple, Red-spotted Purple butterfly, Tamron 180mm on September 8, 2016| 4 Comments »

I am not sure why, but this Red-spotted Purple butterfly (Limenitis arthemis) decided to perch upside-down in the vegetation when I accidently spooked it recently at Jackson Miles Abbot Wetlands Refuge.

Please don’t ask me why “purple” is part of the butterfly’s name—I don’t see any purple either and for that matter,

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reservedthe red doesn’t really look like spots either. Who makes up these names anyways?

Red-spotted Purple

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Sideward swallowtail

Posted in Butterflies, Insects, Nature, Photography, Summer, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly, green spring gardens, Papilio glaucus, Tamron 150-600mm telephoto on September 6, 2016| 2 Comments »

I’ll often try to get shots of butterflies with their wings wide open, but when they turn sideward, you can sometimes get an equally spectacular view of them slowly sipping nectar. I can’t identify the flower, but the butterfly definitely is an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus) that I chased about this past weekend at Green Spring Gardens.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Perfect butterfly

Posted in Butterflies, Insects, Nature, Photography, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly, green spring gardens, Papilio glaucus, Tamron 150-600mm on September 5, 2016| 5 Comments »

Butterflies are always beautiful no matter what their condition, but there is something really special about seeing a perfect specimen with its wings wide open, like this Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus) that I spotted this past weekend at Green Spring Gardens.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Backlit Monarch

Posted in Butterflies, Insects, Nature, Photography, tagged Alexandria VA, backlighting, Canon 50D, Danaus plexippus, green spring gardens, Monarch, monarch butterfly, Tamron 150-600mm on September 4, 2016| 7 Comments »

The sun was shining through the wings of this Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) from behind, making the butterfly glow like a stained glass window on Friday at Green Spring Gardens.

Monarch butterfly

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Damaged wings

Posted in Butterflies, Insects, Nature, Photography, Summer, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, damaged wings, dark swallowtail, Huntley Meadows Park, Papilio troilus, Spicebush Swallowtail, Spicebush Swallowtail butterfly, Tamron 150-600mm on September 1, 2016| 5 Comments »

Butterflies fly so expertly that I often can’t tell that they have severe wing damage until I look closely. That was certainly the case this past weekend when I was observing a dark swallowtail at Huntley Meadows Park.

I didn’t get an absolutely clear look at it, but I think it might be a Spice Bush Swallowtail butterfly (Papilio troilus), judging from its colors and patterns. In the first photo, you can see only minor damage, but when the butterfly changed position, the extent of the damage became much more apparent.

I consider flight to be somewhat of a mystery in any case, but it is even more of a mystery how a butterfly can fly so well when one of its wings is almost completely detached from its body,

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Red Admiral in a tree

Posted in Butterflies, Insects, Nature, Photography, Summer, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, huntley meadows, Red Admiral, Red Admiral butterfly, Tamron 150-600mm, Vanessa atalanta on August 28, 2016| 6 Comments »

Here’s a shot of another one of the colorful butterflies of Huntley Meadows Park. I spotted this Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta) there this past Friday morning as it perched in a tree. What was the butterfly doing in the tree? It seemed to me that it was simply resting, though I suppose that it might also have been trying to attract a mate.

From a photography perspective, I really like the way that the background is divided into two separate colors, creating a kind of yin-yang effect.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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My most popular subject—Red-footed Cannibalfly

Posted in Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Huntley Meadows Park, Promachus rufipes, Red-footed Cannibalfly, Tamron 150-600mm on August 27, 2016| 5 Comments »

How do you measure popularity? WordPress keeps track of a lot of different statistics and one measure of a post’s popularity is the number of times that it has been viewed. For most of my blog postings, the majority of views come within a few days of the posting date. Occasionally I’ll have a few additional views when someone else posts a link to my post.

When I did a posting in November 2014 on the rescue of an injured bald eagle that I witnessed, a few news outlets in Washington D.C. ran a story with my photos and links to my blog. That posting has had 3396 view to date, far and away the most views for a single posting. In some ways I consider that post an anomaly, with much of the activity caused by the newsworthiness of the event that I photographed.

When it comes to “normal” posting, one that I did almost exactly three years ago stands head and shoulders above all others with 1327 views, including 244 within the last thirty days. The posting was simply called Red-Footed Cannibalfly and it has remained remarkably popular over an extended period of time. In fact, if you do a search for “Red-footed Cannibalfly” in Google, my posting has risen to the first page of results, occasionally rising as high as third place.

A lot of the spam I receive in WordPress informs me that there is a secret to getting your material higher in Google search results using Search Engine Optimization and the senders undoubtedly want me to pay them to share the secret with me. Sorry, guys, I seem to have stumbled on it by myself, though I am not sure I could replicate that success.

I was thinking about all of this yesterday when I spotted a Red-footed Cannibalfly (Promachus rufipes) while wandering about Huntley Meadows Park. I’d hesitate to call a Red-footed Cannibalfly beautiful, but there is something fierce and distinctive about its appearance and I love its macabre moniker. I captured this image from a distance with a long telephoto lens and I am happy that I didn’t get close enough for one to land on me—I can’t help but remember that this insect paralyzes its victims, liquefies their insides, and then sucks up the liquefied material.

The Red-footed Cannibalfly may be a bit creepy, but seems to be quite popularwith a lot of folks, judging from my blog statistics.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Skipper love

Posted in Butterflies, Insects, Nature, Photography, tagged Canon 50D, Fort Belvoir VA, Jackson Miles Abbot Wetlands Refuge, skipper, skipper butterfly, Tamron 180mm on August 26, 2016| 1 Comment »

Skipper butterflies normally do not get much attention because they are small and are not brightly colored. When you look closely at members of this large family of butterflies, however, you discover an amazing variety of colors and patterns.

Give some love to the skippers. (Click on any one of the images to see all of them full size in slide show mode, unless you are viewing the post in the WordPress Reader, in which, I believe, the images will be shown individually.)

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Swift Setwing dragonfly still with us

Posted in Dragonflies, Insects, Nature, Photography, Summer, tagged Canon 50D, Dythemis velox, Fort Belvoir VA, Jackson Miles Abbot Wetlands Refuge, Swift Setwing, Swift Setwing dragonfly, Tamron 180mm on August 25, 2016| 6 Comments »

On Monday I spotted this beautiful Swift Setwing dragonfly (Dythemis velox) at Jackson Miles Abbott Wetlands Refuge at Fort Belvoir, a nearby military base. When I observed one at the same location in June, it was the first time that one had been recorded in Fairfax County, the county in Northern Virginia where I live, so I was a little surprised to see that they are still around.

If you would like to see some photos of my initial sighting, check out my blog posting from June 25. The range of this dragonfly seems to be moving northward and it seems likely that I’ll be seeing this species again next year, since I suspect that mating and egg-laying have been taking place during the past two months.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Not a beetle

Posted in Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, Summer, tagged Ailanthus Webworm moth, Atteva aurea, Canon 50D, Fort Belvoir VA, Jackson Miles Abbot Wetlands Refuge, Tamron 180mm on August 23, 2016| 8 Comments »

My eyes were drawn yesterday to the bright yellow of a patch of goldenrod as I was exploring Jackson Miles Abbott Wetlands Refuge at nearby Fort Belvoir. From past experience I knew that goldenrod also attracts a wide variety of insects, so I moved in closer with my macro lens at the ready.

There were a lot of skipper butterflies, but what really caught my eye was a small, brightly patterned insect that was crawling around in the goldenrod. Based on its shape, I assumed that it was some kind of beetle, but I had not idea what kind it was. When I returned home and began to do a little research, I was a little shocked to learn that the insect in question was a moth, not a beetle. I am pretty sure that it is an Ailanthus Webworm moth (Atteva aurea).

The colors and patterns of this moth are so spectacular that I think it needs a name that is more descriptive and easier to remember. Any ideas?

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Monarch in a tree

Posted in Butterflies, Insects, Nature, Photography, Summer, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Danaus plexippus, Huntley Meadows Park, Monarch, monarch butterfly, Tamron 150-600mm on August 20, 2016| 3 Comments »

The last few years I haven’t seen many Monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) and I have read reports of their declining numbers. I was therefore pretty excited when I spotted one yesterday at Huntley Meadows Park. As I approached, the Monarch got spooked and flew up into a tree. Fortunately I was shooting with my long telephoto zoom lens and I managed to get this somewhat unusual shot of the beautiful butterfly.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Appalachian Brown

Posted in Butterflies, Insects, Nature, Photography, tagged Alexandria VA, Appalachian Brown, Appalachian brown butterfly, Canon 50D, Enodia anthedon, Huntley Meadows Park, Northern Pearly-eye, Northern Pearly-eye butterfly, Satyrodes appalachia, Tamron 150-600mm, Tamron 150-600mm telephoto on August 19, 2016| 3 Comments »

I spotted this beautiful little butterfly while wandering through the woods at Huntley Meadows Park this morning. I think it might be an Appalachian Brown (Satyrodes appalachia), although there are a surprisingly large number of brown butterflies with eyespots, which complicates identification.

The woods were pretty dark in the area in which I first spotted the butterfly. However, luck was with me and the butterfly landed on a log that was in the sunlight. I tried to get as low as I could to get this shot, which is why you see the green moss in the foreground.

Update: One of my Facebook readers pointed out that this is probably a Northern Pearly-eye (Enodia anthedon), not an Appalachian Brown. My butterfly identification definitely need some more work.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Blue Dasher on a railing

Posted in Dragonflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Blue Dasher, Blue Dasher dragonfly, Canon 50D, Huntley Meadows Park, obelisk pose, Pachydiplax longipennis, Tamron 180mm on August 18, 2016| 7 Comments »

Blue Dashers (Pachydiplax longipennis) are one of my favorite summer dragonflies. I spotted this one recently at Huntley Meadows Park, perched on the railing of an observation deck in the obelisk pose.

The dragonfly was pretty cooperative and I was able to try few different angles and shooting positions. Although I had my camera’s aperture set to f/10, you can see that the depth of field was relatively shallow and I tried to take advantage of that to isolate the subject and the specific rail on which it was perched.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Busy bees of August

Posted in Bees, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, Summer, tagged Alexandria VA, bees, Canon 50D, green spring gardens, Tamron 180mm on August 17, 2016| 5 Comments »

Despite this summer’s scorching heat and high humidity, the bees of Green Spring Gardens were busy at work gathering pollen and sipping nectar during a recent visit to the gardens. I’m certainly no expert on bees, but it looks like there are several different varieties in the photos below.

I’m pretty confident that the bee in the final shot is a carpenter bee because its abdomen is bare and shiny, unlike that of the bumblebee, which has a hairy abdomen. If you look closely at that image, you’ll see that this bee appears to be a nectar robber—it is piercing the flower from the side to extract the nectar and thereby is not playing any role in pollinating the flower.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Praying Mantis

Posted in Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, Summer, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Huntley Meadows Park, mantis, mantis religiosa, praying mantis, Tamron 180mm on August 15, 2016| 7 Comments »

I spotted this Praying Mantis on Saturday at Huntley Meadows Park as it was crawling about on a nesting box for birds in one of the remote areas of the park. I am pretty confident that the nesting box, which was used by Tree Swallows earlier in the year, was no longer in active use—otherwise the mantis probably would not have survived for long. I was struck by the size of the insect, which seemed to be about six inches (15 cm) in length.

I think this may be a Mantis religiosa, one of the more common types of mantises, though Wikipedia notes that there are over 2400 species worldwide, so I could easily be incorrect in my identification.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Hovering dragonfly

Posted in Dragonflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, dragonfly, hovering dragonfly, Huntley Meadows Park, Tamron 180mm on August 13, 2016| 3 Comments »

Yesterday afternoon at Huntley Meadows Park I captured this image of a female dragonfly as she hovered over the water, periodically dipping the tip of her abdomen into the water to lay eggs (and generate ripples).

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Dragonfly in the garden

Posted in Dragonflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Eastern Amberwing, Eastern Amberwing dragonfly, green spring gardens, Perithemis tenera, Tamron 180mm on August 10, 2016| 8 Comments »

I don’t often see dragonflies in a garden, but spotted this female Eastern Amberwing dragonfly (Perithemis tenera) amidst the flowers earlier this week at Green Spring Gardens. There were lots of male Eastern Amberwings buzzing around the small ponds in another location at the gardens in hopeful expectation of finding a mate.

I have the impression that female dragonflies like to hang out in a different area from the males and then make an appearance at a time of their own choosing.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Butterfly and Joe Pye

Posted in Butterflies, Flowers, Insects, Nature, Photography, Summer, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly, Eutrochium, Huntley Meadows Park, Joe-Pye weed, Papilio glaucus, Tamron 150-600mm on August 9, 2016| 1 Comment »

Hot, humid summer days may be a little tough on us, but butterflies seem to love them. I captured this shot of a spectacular Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus) this past weekend at Huntley Meadows Park as it sipped nectar from what I think is Joe-Pye weed (g. Eutrochium). (I am a bit uncertain about the plant identification and wonder if it might instead be a kind of milkweed, but “Joe Pye” rhymes with butterfly and sounds cooler, so I’ll go with that as a possible identification.)

Unlike many butterflies that I see at this time of the year whose wings are tattered and torn, this butterfly seemed to be in perfect condition. The sun was shining brightly when I took these shots and I was really afraid of blowing out the highlights of this lightly-c0lored butterfly. I switched the metering on my camera to spot metering and was able to get a good exposure of the butterfly and the background went really dark, adding a bit of drama to the images.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Eastern Tiger Swallowtails on Buttonbush

Posted in Butterflies, Insects, Nature, Photography, tagged Alexandria VA, Buttonbush, Canon 50D, Cephalanthus occidentalis, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly, Huntley Meadows Park, Papilio glaucus, Tamron 150-600mm on August 5, 2016| 18 Comments »

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterflies (Papilio glaucus) were really busy on the buttonbushes (Cephalanthus occidentalis) at Huntley Meadows Park recently, including what looks to be a dark morph female. Females of this species are dimorphic—there are both yellow morphs and dark morphs—but males are only yellow.

If you look closely at the second image you’ll see that I managed to capture a “bonus bug.” a bee that is also feeding on the buttonbush. My photography mentor likes to use the term “bonus bug” to refer to insects in our photos whose presence was unknown at the time the photos were taken.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Blue Dashers in Massachusetts

Posted in Dragonflies, Insects, Nature, Photography, Summer, tagged Blue Dasher, Blue Dasher dragonfly, Canon 50D, Canon 70-, Pachydiplax longipennis, Woburn MA on August 2, 2016| 3 Comments »

It was really easy to find Blue Dasher dragonflies (Pachydiplax longipennis) near the hotel where I stayed in Woburn, Massachusetts this past weekend. The challenge was capturing them in interesting poses, which was a bit more difficult than usual because they were unusually skittish—maybe they are not used to seeing people.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Downward-facing dragonfly

Posted in Dragonflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged Blue Dasher, Blue Dasher dragonfly, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm, Pachydiplax longipennis, Woburn MA on July 30, 2016| 2 Comments »

Normally Blue Dasher dragonflies (Pachydiplax longipennis) perch on plants growing upwards, but this one decided to be different by perching on hanging vegetation. I love how the lighting makes it look like the image was shot in the studio. I think I will call his position the “downward-facing dragonfly.” (I captured the image this morning in Woburn, MA at a small canal just outside of my hotel.)

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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First Monarch of the season

Posted in Butterflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged Canon 100mm macro lens, Canon 50D, Danaus plexippus, Monarch, monarch butterfly, Woburn MA on July 30, 2016| 1 Comment »

I was beginning to think that another year would go by without seeing a Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) when yesterday I spotted one of them in the most unlikely of places—in the mulched plants at the back of the hotel where I am staying in Woburn, Massachusetts.

After a grueling eleven-hour ride from Northern Virginia, I arrived at the hotel yesterday afternoon ready to relax. Unfortunately, I was told that my room would not be ready for at least an hour. I grabbed my camera and decided to walk around the grounds of the hotel, which is adjacent to a small canal, to see what there might be to photograph.

As I was walking, I caught sight of an orange-and-black butterfly that kept landing momentarily on the low plants, never staying still long enough for me to get a good shot (I was shooting with a 100mm macro lens). I kept chasing and eventually got some shots. It has been such a long time since I last saw a Monarch that any photo at all is a bonus, so it doesn’t bother me that these are far from being great shots.

My excitement at seeing a Monarch is tempered a bit by the fact that I did not get the right angle to conclusively exclude the possibility that this is a Viceroy butterfly. If that were to turn out to be the case, I’ll be out again chasing butterflies in search of the first Monarch of the season.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Smiling dragonfly

Posted in dragonfly, Humor, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged Blue Dasher, Blue Dasher dragonfly, Canon 50D, McKee-Beshers Wildlife Management Area, Pachydiplax longipennis, Poolesville MD, smile, Tamron 180mm on July 24, 2016| 5 Comments »

How do you get your subject to smile when you want to take a picture? This Blue Dasher dragonfly (Pachydiplax longipennis) didn’t need any prompting at all when I went in for an extreme close-up shot yesterday at McKee-Beshers Wildlife Management Area in Maryland.

Start each day with a smile.

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Black-shouldered Spinyleg

Posted in Dragonflies, Insects, Nature, Photography, Summer, tagged Black-shouldered Spinyleg, Black-shouldered Spinyleg dragonfly, Canon 50D, Dromogomphus spinosus, McKee-Beshers Wildlife Management Area, Poolesville MD, Tamron 180mm on July 24, 2016| 4 Comments »

As I was walking through a field of sunflowers at McKee-Beshers Wildlife Management Area in Poolesville, Maryland, I spotted an unusual dragonfly that I couldn’t immediately identify. It turned out to be a Black-shouldered Spinyleg dragonfly (Dromogomphus spinosus)—a cool name for a cool-looking dragonfly.

When I first caught sight of the dragonfly, the dragonfly’s long, skinny abdomen and the enlarged area near the end suggested to me that it was a member of the clubtail family of dragonflies. (You can get a really good sense of the shape of the “clubtail” when you look at the shadows in a couple of the images). The only clubtails that I have seen with any kind of regularity have been Common Sanddragons and Unicorn Clubtails, and this was clearly not one of them. When I am out in the field, I don’t worry too much about identification—I practice what I call the “Law of the West,” i.e. “shoot first and ask questions later.”

Later in the day my shooting partner was able to identify the dragonfly after I pointed her to the website “Dragonflies of Northern Virginia.” This website is my favorite resources for information and photos of dragonflies in my area. I checked my past blog postings because I had a vague recollection that I had seen this species before and found a posting indicating that I saw one almost exactly a year ago on a trip to a different part of Maryland.

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Banded Pennant dragonfly in mid-July

Posted in Dragonflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, Summer, tagged Banded Pennant, Banded Pennant dragonfly, Canon 50D, Celithemis fasciata, Fort Belvoir VA, Jackson Miles Abbot Wetlands Refuge, Tamron 180mm on July 22, 2016| 1 Comment »

During a quick trip to Jackson Miles Abbott Wetlands Refuge at Fort Belvoir, Virginia last weekend, I was thrilled to see that the spectacularly patterned Banded Pennant dragonflies are still around. This is the only location that I visit regularly where I have spotted this dragonfly species and I am never quite sure when an encounter will be the last one of the season.

As I was looking over the two shots that I chose to use with this posting, I realized that they represent two different approaches that I use when photographing dragonflies. Ideally I will try to position myself so that the camera’s sensor is parallel with the dragonfly’s wings and most of the dragonfly will be in focus. That was the case with the second shot and it really highlights the beautiful pattern of the wings. However, the image seems a bit too static for my taste. I prefer the first shot, in part because the pose is more dynamic and the direct eye contact with the dragonfly draws me in.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Blue Dashers at Green Spring

Posted in Dragonflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, Summer, tagged Alexandria VA, Blue Dasher, Blue Dasher dragonfly, Canon 50D, green spring gardens, obelisk pose, Pachydiplax longipennis, Tamron 180mm on July 21, 2016| 3 Comments »

Blue Dasher dragonflies (Pachydiplax longipennis) have become for me one of the signs of summer in the area in which I live. When the weather turns hot and humid, they can often be seen flying lazily over the marshes and ponds, perching frequently on vegetation growing out of the water.

On a recent trip to Green Spring Gardens, I captured some images perched male Blue Dasher dragonflies. In the first shot, the dragonfly was perched on the edge of a lotus leaf. I really like the curves and softness of the leaves, which contrast with the details of the dragonfly. I think too that the shadow cast on the lower leaf adds some additional visual interest to the image.

The second image features a Blue Dasher in the obelisk pose. It is generally believed that some dragonflies assume this pose to dissipate heat by reducing the amount of their bodies that is exposed to direct sunlight. I was shooting partially into the sun, which forced me to overexpose the image a bit and accounts for the lighter background. However, the surface of the water was covered with a lot of duckweed and was not uniform in color. As a result, the background ended ended up with some ugly gray patches that I seemed to be impossible for me to remove.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Chasing a Buckeye butterfly

Posted in Butterflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, Summer, tagged Buttonbush, Canon 50D, Cephalanthus occidentalis, Common Buckeye, Common Buckeye butterfly, Fort Belvoir VA, Jackson Miles Abbot Wetlands Refuge, Junonia coenia, Tamron 180mm macro on July 20, 2016| 7 Comments »

I first spotted this small Common Buckeye Butterfly (Junonia coenia) as it was flying low above a grassy patch at Jackson Miles Abbott Wetlands Refuge. Periodically it would stop and I would attempt to get a shot of it. It was probably hilarious to watch our little pas de deux—the butterfly would fly and perch and I would bend my knees and crouch, which served as a signal for the butterfly to take off again.

I’m pretty patient, so we danced this way for quite a while before the butterfly decided to perch on some low vegetation rather than on the bare ground. I was finally able to capture a shot, though the butterfly didn’t pose long before taking off again.

As I continued the chase, my knees started getting a bit sore. I was thinking of giving up the chase when suddenly the butterfly flew higher into the air and landed on a buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis). These bushes are a virtual magnet for butterflies and I love the spiky spheres of the plant. I wasn’t able to get very close to the buttonbush, but captured this image that I really like.

The chase ended here and we went our separate ways. I hope that I never get too old or too self-conscious to chase butterflies, a pursuit that makes me feel like a carefree child again.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Real world creature

Posted in Butterflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, Summer, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly, green spring gardens, Papilio glaucus on July 18, 2016| 6 Comments »

Some folks are really into chasing imaginary creatures with their cellphones. I prefer to chase living creatures with my camera and captured this image of a beautiful Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly (Papilio glaucus) yesterday as it was feeding at Green Spring Gardens, a county-run historic garden in Northern Virginia.

The butterfly gave me multiple opportunities to get shots as it flew around a small area of the gardens, but it rarely gave me an obstructed view. Often it was partially buried in the flowers or turned away from me at an angle. When I took this shot, the butterfly had opened its wings and offered me a rare look at its body as well as its amazingly long proboscis.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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