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Archive for the ‘Insects’ Category

Reflection of a white dragonfly

Posted in Bugs, Insects, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , on August 13, 2012| 2 Comments »

I took this photo at Huntley Meadows Park in Alexandria, Virginia, a marshland area that has lots of wildlife. I have managed to get lots of shots of Blue Dasher dragonflies but have had trouble getting a properly exposed image of the Common Whitetail dragonfly. The white body is usually blown out and overexposed in my images. (If you want to know some more about this type of dragonfly, check out the article in Wikipedia as a start.) This past Friday was mostly overcast and I finally got some decent photos.

I like the way this particular image turned out because of the dragonfly’s reflection in the muddy brown pond water, the little stump that pokes out of the water, and the green stalk that runs diagonally across the photo.

Male Common Whitetail dragonfly (Plathemis lydia), also known as a Long-tailed Skimmer.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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A Swallowtail in a different light

Posted in Bugs, Flowers, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on August 12, 2012| Leave a Comment »

The angle of the lighting and the unusual framing of this photograph of a female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly (Papilio glaucus) set it apart from other photos I have taken of the same species. (See my postings from 8 August and 21 July for other shots of the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail.)

The light is uneven and there are areas that are not sharp, but I like the overall effect of the photograph.

Click on the image to see more details.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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American Painted Lady

Posted in Bugs, Flowers, Gardening, Insects, Macro Photography, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , , on August 12, 2012| 4 Comments »

Today I photographed an American Painted Lady butterfly (Vanessa virginiensis), which is also know as an American Lady.

At first I thought it was a Painted Lady butterfly (Vanessa cardui), a type that I had previously photographed (see my posting from 3 August). A closer examination and some internet research showed it was not the same butterfly.  You can find more information in Wikipedia but the easiest identification features for me were the eyespots on the ventral side—the American Painted Lady has two large eyespots and the Painted Lady has four smaller ones.

I learned a good lesson today too about the need to carry a camera with me as often as possible. I took this photo at the outdoor sales area at a local Home Depot store.

American Painted Lady butterfly (Vanessa virginiensis)

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Fuzzy, colorful caterpillar

Posted in Bugs, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , on August 11, 2012| 4 Comments »

I came across this colorful specimen while on a nature walk at a local marsh. He was close enough to the edge of the path that I was able to set up my tripod and shoot with my macro lens, so I was able to get a reasonable depth of field.

I don’t have the slightest idea what kind of a caterpillar this is, but I really like his colors and all of the hairy, spiny things sticking out of his body (even if they made focusing a bit of a challenge).

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Spider and Daddy

Posted in Bugs, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on August 11, 2012| 3 Comments »

When I came upon this scene this afternoon I couldn’t help but think of some blog posts that I had read recently. Steven Schwartzman had a beautiful artistic image of a damselfly caught in a spider’s web entitled “Three Orbs, Three Colors.”  Daniel Proud had a wonderfully informative Four part series on Harvestmen (Daddy Longlegs) in late July that included colorful images of different harvestmen. Both of those bloggers caused me to be much more attentive today as I took in my surroundings during a nature walk at a local marsh.

I managed to capture an image of the spider moving in on his captured prey, a daddy longlegs, that had become stuck in the spider’s web.  Some may find the photo to be a little disturbing, but to me it is a simple fact of natural life.

Shortly after taking this photo, I moved in a little closer and must have disturbed the web. The spider quickly climbed up the web and took refuge inside the curled-up leaf. I waited for quite some time but the spider did not reappear.

I think the daddylongs was still alive when I left him, but his prospects do not appear to be good.

Caught in the web

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Do you come to this plant often?

Posted in Bugs, Flowers, Gardening, Humor, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , , on August 10, 2012| 5 Comments »

Every now and then when I am focusing intently on an insect and trying to set up a shot, other insects creep into the frame. Only later, when I am looking at the photos on my computer screen, do I realize that they are there. My friend, Cindy Dyer, likes to call them “bonus bugs.”

This morning as I was looking at some recent wasp photos, I realized that there was a black shield bug in one of them. The shot is not that great technically, but I think that the combination of the two very different insects makes for an interesting photo, particularly because the wasp seems to have noticed the shield bug.

To me the moment is reminiscent of the bar scene in the Star Wars movie in which all kinds of different alien creatures are interacting. Click on the link to a You Tube video if you’ve never seen this classic piece of film history.

This photo really is begging for a clever caption and I’d welcome any suggestions.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Wasp with an attitude

Posted in Bugs, Flowers, Gardening, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on August 10, 2012| 6 Comments »

Bees and butterflies seem to get all the love. Where is the love for the lowly wasp? Maybe wasps need a public relations firm to give them a new image.

This photo from a recent shoot suggests one approach to that new image—an edgy, radical image. The wasp already appears to be sporting a mohawk hairstyle and large, dark sunglasses. Some piercings and a few tattoos and the new image would be complete.

The result—a cool new image for the wasp to match the attitude he already possesses.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Bee on salvia flower

Posted in Bugs, Flowers, Gardening, Insects, Macro Photography, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on August 10, 2012| 3 Comments »

Whenever I am shooting flowers of any sort I am inevitably drawn to bees. I love watching them flying and hovering, back and forth and in and out of the flowers.  Sometimes a bee seems to be systematically covering a group of flowers and other times he seems to be choosing randomly where to touch down before moving on, relentlessly in motion.

Here are a couple of recent shots of carpenter bees on a plant that I have been told is called salvia. I love its deep purple color and simple flowers. The first shot is a closeup of a bee. The second one gives you a better idea of the shape of the flower. Note that in both cases the bee is getting the nectar from the side of the flower and is therefore not pollinating it.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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The hole truth, and nothing but the truth

Posted in Bugs, Flowers, Gardening, Humor, Insects, Macro Photography, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , on August 9, 2012| 6 Comments »

Last month I first encountered the Striped Cucumber Beetle (Acalymma vittata) in a neighbor’s garden. I was immediately taken by his cool, sophisticated, man-about-town look. The black and light yellow stripes down his back make him look like he is dressed formally. The translucent orange high collar, though, adds a splash of color to his ensemble and causes him to really stand out in a crowd. This well-dressed dandy, however, has a deep dark secret. Beneath the surface of this Dr. Jekyll lurks a Mr. Hyde.

I ran into him today in my friend’s garden. Previously, the garden had been green and flowering. Now the garden looked like a war zone, with signs of devastation everywhere. The leaves of the plants had all been ravaged and looked like the image below.

So I confronted the striped cucumber beetle about what had happened to the leaves. I asked him to swear an oath to tell the hole truth, and nothing but the truth. Initially he resisted and then he admitted to a hole in one. Finally he confessed and named the other beetles who had participated. The judge, however,  may be lenient with him because he took personal responsibility for his actions and acknowledged that the hole thing had been his idea.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Bee hug

Posted in Bugs, Flowers, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , on August 8, 2012| 3 Comments »

The subject is simple and familiar, a bee and a flower. My eye was drawn, however, to the way this bee had latched on to the entire center of this flower in a full-bodied bee hug. The X-shape of the splayed legs and the radiating petals combine to produce a graphic effect that goes beyond the literal subject matter.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Swallowtail pattern

Posted in Bugs, Flowers, Gardening, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , , , on August 8, 2012| 4 Comments »

Usually my photos are realistic, almost hyper-realistic in their macro details. Sometimes, though, I get excited by a portion of an image and the patterns and lines contained therein.

Yesterday I took some close-ups of a male Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly. Thanks to my telephoto lens the butterfly more than filled the frame. After a bit of tweaking I ended up with an image that is almost abstract, with lots of interesting lines and shapes. You can still tell that it is a butterfly and a flower, but it has a different feel than my other butterfly shots.

I find it fun to try something completely different from time to time.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Swallowtail ladies are not all the same

Posted in Bugs, Flowers, Gardening, Insects, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on August 8, 2012| 10 Comments »

One of the coolest things about female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterflies (Papilio glaucus) is that they come in two distinctly different colors, black and yellow. According to Wikipedia, that characteristic makes them dimorphic. I’m no scientist, so I had to do some research  to see what “dimorphic” means. If I understand it right, it means that there are two different phenotypes (called morphs) that exist in the same population of a species and they have to be in the same habitat at the same time to qualify.

I was thrilled yesterday to observe and photograph both variants at a local garden. The yellow ones resemble the male, although the male is only yellow and black and has no additional orange and blue markings. I have seen a lot of the yellow female swallowtails this summer. The black swallowtails, which have black bodies as well as black wings, seem to be more rare, or at least I have seen them only rarely this summer.

Which one is more beautiful? I’ll leave that call to each of you.

black_swallowtail1_6x8blog

Female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly (black variant) UPDATE in 2020: I think that I misidentified this as an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail and now think it might be a Black Swallowtail, though the angle keeps me from being sure about the identification

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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I need a trim (or at least a comb)

Posted in Bugs, Flowers, Gardening, Humor, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , , on August 7, 2012| 4 Comments »

Some bees are hairy and some bees are really hairy.

Seriously, this bee looks like he could use a beauty makeover. At a minimum he needs a trip to a barber or hair stylist to trim away some of that excess hair. Look at his legs, his forehead, and his neckline. Yikes! The worst area may be the swirly hair on his back. I haven’t seen anything that bad since the days when the comb-over was a popular hair style.

Maybe he is wearing his hair long to conceal the fact that he is going thin on his back. If that’s the case, I have news for you, Mr. Bee. “You’re not fooling anyone.”  It’s time to get with modern styles, perhaps, and shave it all off.

What would a bald bee look like?

Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bee…

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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King of Butterflies

Posted in Bugs, Flowers, Insects, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , on August 7, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) feeding on a marigold flower at Green Spring Gardens, Alexandria, VA on 6 August 2012.

Click on the photo for greater color and clarity

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Getting into and out of a tight spot

Posted in Bugs, Flowers, Gardening, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on August 7, 2012| 7 Comments »

Does a bee ever get stuck when he flies (or climbs) into a flower with a narrow opening?

This question arose this afternoon when I watched a bee enter a flower so deeply that only his legs were visible. He remained in that position for some time and then he somehow was able to get back out of the flower. I am still not sure if he was stuck or how he was able to extricate himself. From my perspective, it was a feat worthy of an insect Houdini.

I shot a series of photos that illustrate the whole process. In this case the old adage is true about a picture being worth a thousand words. You will notice that I changed my vantage point part way through the shoot. (I had plenty of time while the bee was inside the flower.) I would also draw your special attention to the details of the last photo in which the bee has to act like a contortionist to get his legs out of the tight spot.

Who knew that bees were so flexible?

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Reflections on a bee

Posted in Bugs, Flowers, Gardening, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on August 6, 2012| 4 Comments »

You might think that I am going to talk philosophically about a bee, but my title is meant to be taken literally. If you click on the photo, you can actually see reflections of the sky and bushes on the shiny surface of the abdomen end of this bee.

I am pretty sure that this is a carpenter bee for two main reasons. First, the abdomen area is shiny and hairless, unlike a bumblebee who is more hairy. Secondly, the bee is sucking nectar out of the side of the flower rather than going in from the front, a process sometimes referred to as “nectar robbing.” Carpenter bees are notorious for circumventing pollination in certain plants by slitting open the side of the flower.

Perhaps others can see more reflections on the bee. It’s like looking at clouds and trying to see shapes—it’s a lot of fun and everyone sees something different. Life is like that sometimes.

Click the photo to see more details

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Against the odds

Posted in Flowers, Gardening, Insects, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on August 6, 2012| 7 Comments »

Is it really possible to find inspiration and motivation in an insect?

Take a really close look at this photo of an male Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly (Papilio glaucus).

Do you see the delicate beauty of his colors and shapes or are your eyes drawn immediately to his infirmity? His wings are virtually shredded and there is a large portion of one of them missing.

Somehow, despite all of those limitations, he can still fly. He can defy gravity and the laws of aerodynamics.

I don’t know how he does it, but he is able to overcome adversity.  Some of the lyrics of the song “Defying Gravity” from the musical “Wicked” come into my head as I think about it.

“I’m through accepting limits ’cause someone says they’re so. Some things I cannot change but til I try I’ll never know….I’d sooner buy defying gravity. Kiss me goodbye I’m defying gravity and you can’t pull me down.”

Inspiration and motivation can come from many places, I would posit, even from insects.

Take these broken wings and learn to fly…

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Damselfly on a limb

Posted in Bugs, Flowers, Gardening, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on August 5, 2012| 6 Comments »

I came across this tiny damselfly yesterday when I was visiting a local garden in the late afternoon. Initially I spotted her when she was flying and I was thrilled when she chose to land in a spot where I could photograph her. I apologize to the experts for not identifying the type but I find it impossible to identify damselflies (and even dragonflies are not easy).

Damselflies are particularly challenging for me to photograph because they are so long and skinny. If I photograph them from the side, the eye is often out of focus and if I try to shoot head-on, depth of field is an issue.

I ended up with a photo that I shot from above and to the side. Somehow I managed to reduce the composition to the damselfly, the branch to which she is clinging, and a couple of leaves.

I find special beauty in that kind of simplicity in nature and in my photography.

Unidentified damselfly

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Dramatic portrait of a Blue Dasher dragonfly

Posted in Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on August 4, 2012| 5 Comments »

Four weeks ago today my friend and mentor Cindy Dyer helped me to start this blog. She has been teaching me and encouraging me as I seek to express myself through my photography. I owe her my thanks.

Over the past month I’ve tried a lot of different things: short posts and long ones; serious posts and funny ones; scientific posts and artistic ones; and scarey posts and beautiful ones. Some have been successful and others less so. The best thing about this blog, however, is that I have encountered a wide array of fellow bloggers. You have taught me so much and supported me with words of encouragement and inspiration. Thanks to all of you.

My first blog posting featured a Blue Dasher dragonfly, one of my favorite subjects. It somehow seems appropriate to feature another one as I celebrate my four-week anniversary. I photographed this Blue Dasher dragonfly (Pachydiplax longipennis) in late June at Green Spring Garden, a county-run facility that has a pond as well as a garden. It is only a few miles from my house and has been a kind of laboratory for me as I have worked on my photography.

Today is a hot, humid day here in the Washington DC area and I have stayed indoors poring over some of my images from the past month or so. I came across this one and after I adjusted the exposure a bit I realized that it was a pretty good shot. The lighting and background help to make it stand out from some of my other dragonfly photos (and I have lots). I uploaded a higher resolution image to allow viewers to see some more of the details, including the “eyelashes” of the dragonfly. Be sure to click on the image.

Click on the photo for a more detailed view of the dragonfly

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Creepy crawlie

Posted in Bugs, Humor, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , on August 4, 2012| 5 Comments »

A few minutes ago I was vacuuming when I suddenly noticed that there was an insect on the screen of my sliding glass patio door.  Of course, I immediately stopped working and grabbed my camera (with macro lens) and tripod.

I decided to try some face-to-face shots, which was a little tricky for the insect (which I think is a katydid) was less that two feet above ground level. I am glad that nobody could see me as I contorted my body with considerably less grace than the Olympic gymnasts I watched earlier this week.

When I looked at my closeup shots of the eyes, I realized they were a little creepy. No, they were more than a little creepy. So, of course, I am sharing them with you. Hopefully this image does not cause anyone to lose sleep or have nightmares and I certainly would not advise blowing this up and hanging it on your wall. (And yes, I know my macro technique still needs work, but I am still just learning.)

Now I can return to my chores, unless some other photo opportunity literally falls at my door step.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Shadowy insects

Posted in Bugs, Flowers, Gardening, Humor, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on August 4, 2012| 2 Comments »

I have always been fascinated by light and shadows.

Shadows often hide or mask details of a subject, although they also may reveal elements of a subject that might otherwise be concealed. Sometimes shadows are an accurate reflection of the subject (like a silhouette), but other times they distort reality. Shadows intrigue me too because they often pick up characteristics of the surfaces on which they are cast in addition to those of the subject.

My musings on shadows were prompted by this photo of an unidentified wasp (I think it is some kind of wasp) that I shot yesterday morning. The wasp was back lit by the morning sun, causing a hidden part of his body to be revealed in the shadow.

A few months ago I decided to photograph the morning light coming through a small flower in my neighbor’s garden. As I getting ready to shoot, an ant started walking across the back of the flower. It’s not a technically good shot but I like the effect that was produced by the ant’s shadow.

Folks who follow this blog know that I love dragonflies. In early June I took some photos of dragonflies on a sunny day, resulting in lots of shadows. The dragonfly’s shadow makes me think of the position of a person hang gliding and it even looks like the dragonfly is wearing a little helmet.

The undulating surfaces on which the shadow falls really make a difference in the shape of the shadow. I especially like how the shadows of the wings fall on a separate leaf from the shadow of the main body. The shadows of the leaves themselves make this image even more interesting for me.

In this final photo a dragonfly literally is casting a long shadow. The distortion caused by the angle of the sunlight causes his legs to appear much longer and I find that this dragonfly looks much more menacing than is typical of a dragonfly.

Can a dragonfly actually look menacing?

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Painted Lady

Posted in Bugs, Flowers, Gardening, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on August 3, 2012| 3 Comments »

Painted Lady butterfly (Vanessa cardui) photographed today at Green Spring Gardens, Alexandria, Virginia.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Back-lit Swallowtail Butterfly

Posted in Bugs, Flowers, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , on August 3, 2012| 2 Comments »

Female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly (Papilio glaucus) photographed today at Green Spring Gardens, Alexandria, Virginia.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Insects on an orange poppy

Posted in Bugs, Flowers, Gardening, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , , on August 3, 2012| 9 Comments »

Do you ever get in the mood for a single color? This evening I am in an orange mood. (As a disclaimer I should mention that I drive an orange car, so orange plays a larger role in my daily life than it probably does for most others.) To scratch that itch, I decided to post some photos from late May of an orange poppy and some of the insects that visited it.

May was the month when I first started getting more serious about photography and these photos were an early indication to me that I was improving. I still enjoy looking at them, remembering some of the early twists and turns of the photography journey on which I have embarked.

As I think back, I feel like I was just learning to walk. Now I can walk with much greater confidence. I look forward to being able to run.

Visiting bee

Visiting hoverfly (flower fly)

Visiting ant

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Return of the Creature on the Lavender Plant

Posted in Bugs, Flowers, Gardening, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , , , , on August 2, 2012| 21 Comments »

This evening after work I returned to the site of yesterday’s adventures with the creature that I think is a bagworm caterpillar. Despite some heavy rain last night his sticks-and-silk abode was intact. I stood and waited, wondering if he would reappear.

After just a few minutes of waiting I watched as the bag started to shake and the caterpillar began to emerge from the bag. Unlike last night when he seemed a little coy, tonight he seemed to have shed all inhibitions (or was really hungry).

He rather quickly extended himself more than halfway out of the bag and began to chew on the lavender blossoms. That answered one of my questions from my last posting about whether lavender was a suitable host plant for a bag worm.

I managed to shoot him from a number of different angles to show some details of the caterpillar and the opening in the bag. I think that a couple of my shots captured the texture of the bag. My shooting time was really limited because after his brief snack the caterpillar returned to the comfortable confines of his sleeping bag.

I am sure that I will move on to other subjects eventually, but for the moment I remain utterly fascinated with my creature on the lavender plant. We are developing a relationship but I have not given him a pet name, at least not yet.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Creature on a lavender plant

Posted in Bugs, Flowers, Gardening, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , , , , , on August 1, 2012| 9 Comments »

This evening I spotted something unusual hanging from a lavender plant in my neighbor’s garden. I like to visit her garden when I come home from work in the evening because there are always flowers and insects to photograph, many of which she photographs and features in her blog.

The strange object looked a little like a misshapen pine cone and seemed to be covered in pine needles and little twigs. It was hanging from the lavender plant, swinging in the gentle breeze.

Suddenly in front of my eyes the “pine cone” thing began to shake a little, an opening appeared in the top, and a caterpillar (I think that’s what it is) began to emerge. Fortunately I had my camera in my hand because I had been taking some shots of bees.

The caterpillar emerged only partially and then returned to the homemade structure. The opening closed shut, leaving no evidence that there was a living creature inside.

My preliminary research suggests this is a kind of bagworm, although it seems a little unusual for it to make its home on a lavender plant. Wikipedia indicates that there are many species of bagworms, including one whose pupae are collected as a protein-rich food.

I don’t know if you noticed the claws on this caterpillar in the close-up photograph, but I may now have nightmares about giant clawed caterpillars (to go along with the soul-sucking robber flies of a few days ago).

Close-up of bagworm caterpillar emerging

Stepping back to see the whole “bag”

Caterpillar has gone back inside

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Not a tiny dragonfly

Posted in Bugs, Gardening, Insects, Macro Photography, Photography, tagged , , , , , on July 30, 2012| 6 Comments »

My eyes were so attuned to dragonflies yesterday that my first thought when I stumbled upon this insect perched at the top of a plant was that it was a tiny dragonfly. The pose especially looked familiar.

The more I looked at it, however, the more I realized that the legs and winds were all wrong and the head, which in this profile shot looks a bit like a dragonfly’s, was really different. From another angle it sort of looked like a fly, but not any fly that I had ever seen. What is it?

I think that what I have here is a robber fly (from the insect family Asilidae). So far I have not been able to get any more precise in identifying this guy’s species. The description of robber flies in Wikipedia, however, is pretty. scarey.

“The short, strong proboscis is used to stab and inject victims with saliva containing neurotoxic and proteolytic enzymes which paralyze and digest the insides; the fly then sucks the liquefied meal through the proboscis.”

Yikes! That description alone is enough to bring back flashbacks of alien movies and zombie thrillers.

I may not sleep well tonight.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Is a Blue Dasher always blue?

Posted in Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , on July 30, 2012| Leave a Comment »

I know that this sounds like a trick question but I asked myself this very question when I encountered the dragonfly pictured below this afternoon.  I have had lots of practice observing and photographing Blue Dasher dragonflies (Pachydiplax longipennis) and they have always been blue.

From the “waist” up this looks like a typical Blue Dasher with the distinctive chest markings. (I realize that I am not using the anatomically correct language so I apologize if anyone is offended by my ignorance.) The tail, though, is completely different in color—it is not blue.

A little research on the internet reveals that the female Blue Dasher, as shown above, is not blue. She (and juvenile males) have the yellow stripes on the tail as shown.

I am still left wondering, though, about the male-female ratio for Blue Dashers and have no explanation why until now I have seen only males.

I will leave you to ponder that mystery as you look at one of my favorite photo from yesterday of a male Blue Dasher.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Female and Male Eastern Pondhawk Dragonflies

Posted in Bugs, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on July 29, 2012| 6 Comments »

A flash of emerald green whizzed past my eyes as I was walking in a meadow near my hotel in Massachusetts. What could it be? I waited a few minutes and recognized the familiar flight patterns of a dragonfly.

Most of the dragonflies that I see are drab by comparison with this one that is almost tropical in the brightness of its color. I am pretty sure this is a female Eastern Pondhawk (Erythemis simplicicollis). For more details about this dragonfly check out BugGuide.

Female Eastern Pondhawk

I stayed for a while longer in the meadow to see what else might appear and was pleased when a pretty bluish-green dragonfly flew into view. At first I thought it was a Blue Dasher but after examining him more closely I realized he was a different type.  I think he is a male Eastern Pondhawk (Erythemis simplicicollis).

Male Eastern Pondhawk

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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A damsel and two dragons

Posted in Bugs, Gardening, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , on July 27, 2012| 4 Comments »

Perhaps I am going through a blue period for my favorite members of the Odonata family this weekend (one damselfly and two dragonflies) all turned out to be different shades of blue. I photographed the dragonflies in a marshy area where I expected to find them. I didn’t at all expect to see the damselfly in a garden setting but was able to get a shot when my friend Cindy Dyer pointed her out to me. (I’m calling the damselfly a “her” because it seems strange for me to refer to anything with “damsel” in its name as a “him.”)

It’s easy for me to identify the dragonfly in the middle as a Blue Dasher but I have not yet been able to identify the other two insects by name.

For now they will have to remain strangers, nameless but beautiful.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Destructive beauty

Posted in Bugs, Gardening, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , , , , on July 26, 2012| 3 Comments »

What do you want to emphasize in a photograph that you display to others? It is a creative choice that each of us faces every time we take a photo or manipulate an image.

I enjoy shooting subjects with friends and comparing our results. Earlier in the week I was with Cindy Dyer, my photography mentor, and spotted an interesting looking little beetle on a plant in her garden. I did not have my macro lens on my camera and suggested that she photograph the little striped beetle, a type she had never previously encountered. She later identified the beetle as a Striped Cucumber beetle (Acalymma vittata).

Cindy took a wonderful photo of the beetle staring over the edge of a leaf and entitled her posting “The Abyss.” Her photo is graphic and colorful and full of a sense of mystery and contemplation. I took some photos this evening of what is possibly the same beetle. I tried to convey the same impression that Cindy did in my second photo below, but that was not really what I wanted to stress. This first photo shows my “take” on the subject.

I decided that I wanted to contrast the beauty of the beetle with its destructiveness and chose to include the damaged leaf in the initial photo that is most prominently featured on the blog. The rest of the photos are variations of the themes of beauty and destruction, sometimes depicting only one of the two themes or juxtaposing them both in a single frame.

Our choices influence how our viewers are likely to react to our photos.  It is liberating to have that kind of creative freedom. It is who we are and what we do.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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