Posted in Art, Dragonflies, dragonfly, Insects, Nature, Photography, Summer, tagged Adamstown MD, Canon 50D, Celithemis eponina, halloween pennant, Halloween Pennant dragonfly, halloween pennants mating, Lilypons Water Gardens, Tamron 180mm on August 31, 2017| 1 Comment »
The biological clocks of some species seem to be ticking as the summer winds down, compelling them into frantically mating sessions, like this pair of Halloween Pennant dragonflies (Celithemis eponina) that I spotted this past weekend at Lilypons Water Gardens in Adamstown, Maryland. The challenge in photographing this type of activity is to present it in a way that is artistic rather than purely sexual.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in abstract, Art, Dragonflies, dragonfly, Insects, Nature, Photography, tagged Adamstown MD, Canon 50D, Libellula pulchella, Lilypons Water Gardens, Tamron 180mm, Twelve-spotted Skimmer, Twelve-spotted Skimmer dragonfly on August 27, 2017| 3 Comments »
When it comes to dragonflies, what catches your eye? Is it their bright colors or their acrobatic flying skills? When it comes to male Twelve-spotted Skimmers (Libellula pulchella), it is definitely the bold brown-and-white pattern on their wings that irresistibly attracts me. I somehow feel compelled to chase after one whenever I spot it.
Yesterday I made a brief trip to Lilypons Water Gardens in Adamstown, Maryland. This sprawling facility has over 150 acres of amazing ponds and water gardens with fantastic displays of water lilies, which are for sale. (I’ll feature some of the different colored water lilies in an upcoming post.) Although I saw a lot of dragonflies there, I saw only a few Twelve-spotted Skimmers.
Most of them were remarkably elusive, but one finally perched on some vegetation overhanging the water. The bank was fairly steep, so there was no way that I could get a side shot or a head-on shot, which is one of my favorite shots of a dragonfly. What was I going to do?
Then it dawned on me that I had a perfect view of the magnificent wing patterns as I looked straight down the body of the dragonfly, facing in the same direction that he was facing. Boldly I decided to commit what is normally a cardinal sin for a photographer—I intentionally chose not to focus on the subject’s eyes. Lightning did not strike me as I pressed the shutter and I captured an almost abstract portrait of the dragonfly. For me, there is a real beauty in the simplicity and minimalism of this image.
In case you get confused about counting the twelve spots, you’re supposed to count only the brown spots. According to Wikipedia, though,some folks prefer to count the white spots and therefore call this dragonfly a “Ten-spot Skimmer.”
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Flowers, Gardening, Nature, Photography, tagged Adamstown MD, Canon 50D, Lilypons Water Gardens, lotus, lotus bud, lotus flower, lotus seed pod, Tamron 180mm macro on July 31, 2015| 5 Comments »
The lotuses were a bit faded and past their prime last weekend at Lilypons Water Gardens, but the beauty and elegance of the lotus flowers was undiminished in my eyes.
I love the look of the lotus throughout its life cycle—from the elegant simplicity of the bud to the showy outburst of petals to the alien-looking seedpods.
The beauty of the lotus never fades, though it is transformed and changes as the flower grows and matures.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Dragonflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged Adamstown MD, Black-shouldered Spinyleg, Black-shouldered Spinyleg dragonfly, Canon 50D, Dromogomphus spinosus, Lilypons Water Gardens, Tamron 180mm macro lens on July 30, 2015| 8 Comments »
Last Saturday at Lilypons Water Gardens in Adamstown, Maryland I spotted a large dragonfly that I had never seen before, a Black-shouldered Spinyleg (Dromogomphus spinosus). That’s definitely a cool (and descriptive) name for a spectacular-looking dragonfly.
The dragonfly remained perched in the vegetation surrounding a small pond long enough for me to get shots from a few different angles and distances with my macro lens. I was particularly struck by the length of the long black legs, which somehow reminded me of those of a spider.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Amphibians, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, Water Lilies, wildlife, tagged Acris crepitans, Adamstown MD, Canon 50D, Lilypons Water Gardens, Northern Cricket frog, Tamron 180mm macro lens on July 29, 2015| 10 Comments »
Perched at the edge of a lily pad, this frog at Lilypons Water Gardens was so small that I doubt I would have seen it by myself. However, one of my sharp-eyed fellow photographers spotted it and served as the hand model for the shot with the penny.
A helpful Facebook reader suggested that this is probably a Northern Cricket frog (Acris crepitans) and it certainly does look like the photos that I can find on the internet. Judging from the size of the penny, which is 3/4 of an inch in diameter (19 mm), I’d guess that the frog was less than 3/8 of an inch (9.5 mm) in size.
My fellow photographer tried to move the penny slowly into position, but, as I suspected would happen, the frog jumped away shortly after the second shot below. I would have liked to capture the frog in motion, but ended up instead with a shot of the vacant lily pad—the frog had jumped right out of the frame.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Arachnids, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged Adamstown MD, Canon 50D, Dolomedes triton, fishing spider, Lilypons Water Gardens, Six-spotted Fishing Spider, Tamron 180mm macro lens on July 28, 2015| 7 Comments »
When shot from a relatively low angle, this Six-spotted Fishing spider (Dolomedes triton) looks especially fearsome, although it was actually pretty small, only about an inch (25 mm) or so in length. The spider was perched on a lily pad at Lilypons Water Gardens in Adamstown, Maryland.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Dragonflies, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged Adamstown MD, Canon 50D, Fragile Forktail, Fragile Forktail damselfly, Ischnura posita, Lilypons Water Gardens, Tamron 180mm macro lens on July 27, 2015| 2 Comments »
I haven’t taken very many damselfly photos this summer, in part because often I have been attempting to shoot dragonflies with my long telephoto lens. That lens has a minimum focusing distance of almost nine feet (2.7 meters) and it’s hard to see and focus on a tiny damselfly at that distance.
This past weekend, however, I was using my 180mm macro lens and was happy to be able to capture some images of this beautiful female Fragile Forktail damselfly (Ischnura posita) during a trip to Lilypons Water Gardens in Adamstown, Maryland.
Damselflies are really small, but they pack a lot of beautiful details and colors into that tiny package. This particular species is special to me this year, because way back in April a female Fragile Forktail was the first damselfly that I spotted this season and presented in this posting.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Dragonflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged Adamstown MD, Canon 50D, Eastern Ringtail dragonfly, Erpetogomphus designatus, Lilypons, Lilypons Water Gardens, ringtail dragonfly, Tamron 180mm macro lens on July 26, 2015| 9 Comments »
I really enjoy photographing familiar subjects, but there is still something really special about finding new ones, like this female Eastern Ringtail dragonfly (Erpetogomphus designatus) that I stumbled upon yesterday during a photo excursion with some friends to Adamstown, Maryland.
The goal of our visit was to explore Lilypons Water Gardens, a large facility that specializes in all kinds of aquatic plants and includes a series of interlocking ponds with waterlilies and lotuses. I suspected that there would be lots of dragonflies and I was not disappointed.
While my friends were photographing the flowers, I started walking along the barely trampled paths that had knee-high grass and other vegetation. Most of the dragonflies that I spotted were familiar friends: Widow Skimmers, Eastern Pondhawks, Slaty Skimmers, Common Whitetails, and Blue Dashers, but a couple that I saw immediately struck me as being new and different.
The very colorful and distinctive rings on the abdomen of today’s featured dragonfly, the Eastern Ringtail, really attracted my attention and somehow reminded me of the photos I had seen of a coral snake. Fortunately the dragonfly, unlike the snake, is not poisonous. I chased the dragonfly for quite a while but never managed to get a shot of it with an uncluttered background—it kept perching on vegetation low to the ground.
When I returned home, I didn’t have a clue where to start with identification, because I hadn’t gotten some of the kind of diagnostic shots that I need, as relative neophyte, to identify a dragonfly. So I did what I usually do in cases like this—I contacted Walter Sanford, my local dragonfly expert. He tentatively identified it as a female Eastern Ringtail and another expert in the Northeast Odonata Facebook group agreed with Walter.
I’m pretty happy with my newest dragonfly find, a species I might have trouble finding again. According to the Maryland Biodiversity Project, the Eastern Ringtail is designated S2, which means that it is rare in the state of Maryland.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Mike Powell 