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Posts Tagged ‘halloween pennant’

Halloween Pennant close-ups

Posted in Dragonflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on July 13, 2015| 17 Comments »

This young male Halloween Pennant dragonfly (Celithemis eponina) let me get close enough to use my macro lens to good effect, but an intermittent light breeze caused him to sway back and forth, greatly increasing the challenge of getting sharp shots.

Halloween Pennants are spectacular dragonflies with their two-toned eyes and patterned wings. They almost always choose to perch at the very tip of flimsy branches and blades of grass and often do look like pennant blowing in the wind.

I included a shot of the entire body of this dragonfly to give you a full appreciation of its wildly wonderful wings.

Halloween Pennant

Halloween Pennant

Halloween Pennant

 

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Halloween Pennant in the spring

Posted in Dragonflies, Insects, Nature, Patriotism, spring, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on June 21, 2015| 9 Comments »

Yesterday, the last full day of spring, I spotted a Halloween Pennant (Celithemis eponina), one of my favorite dragonflies, at Huntley Meadows Park, a place where I had previously never seen one. It was an auspicious end to spring, even if it seems a bit strange to speak of spring and Halloween in the same posting.

As you can see, these dragonflies like to perch on the very top of the vegetation in the fields. That’s an advantage in isolating the subject, but the slightest breeze causes them to wave back and forth like a pennant.

I snapped away when I spotted the Halloween Pennants and have not yet gone through all of my images, but I am so excited that I can’t help but share a couple with you now. There may be a few more to come later.

Halloween Pennant

Halloween Pennant

Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Waving in the breeze

Posted in Dragonflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, Uncategorized, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on August 25, 2014| 13 Comments »

It’s not hard to figure out the source of its name when you spot a colorful Halloween Pennant dragonfly (Celithemis eponina) waving in the breeze. These dragonflies also remind me of pole vaulters, attempting to thrust their bodies over a crossbar while holding on to the very end of a long pole.

I have not seen one yet at Huntley Meadows Park, the place where I take the majority of my photos, though earlier this summer one of my fellow photographers, Walter Sanford, spotted one in the park for the first time in years. I shot this image at edge of a small pond during a recent trip to Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden in Richmond, Virginia.

pennant1_blog

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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My favorite dragonfly

Posted in Art, Dragonflies, Flowers, Gardening, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on August 5, 2013| 5 Comments »

Yesterday I was happy to get some shots of my favorite dragonfly, the Halloween Pennant dragonfly (Celithemis eponina), at Meadowlark Botanical Gardens in Vienna, Virginia.

I don’t see this dragonfly at all at most of the usual places where I take photographs, so I was really excited when I caught sight of a couple of them yesterday. I chased them around for well over an hour and attempted to take a couple of hundred shots using a wide range of camera settings.

Why did I take so many photos? The dragonfly gets the “pennant”  part of its name because it likes to perch on the very tip of a weed stalk and waves in the breeze like a pennant. Yesterday, in fact, was breezy and it was quite an adventure trying to keep the dragonfly in focus, particularly because I was trying to fill the frame with the dragonfly.

The dragonflies that I photographed were reasonably cooperative and I was able to attempt shots from the side, from above, and even from below (fortunately the insects in the grass did not bite very often).

I have not been able to go through the shot to pick the best ones, but thought it would be nice to post one now, especially for those readers who may not be familiar with this beautiful dragonfly. I suspect that I will eventually post at least a couple more images in future postings.

Halloween1_blog

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Halloween Pennant on Friday the 13th

Posted in Gardening, Insects, Macro Photography, Photography, tagged , , , , , , , , on July 14, 2012| 2 Comments »

I have always admired my friend Cindy D’s photos of an unusual dragonfly that she has featured in her postings.  He is called a Halloween Pennant dragonfly (celithemis eponina).

Wikipedia has some interesting information about this dragonfly including the fact that, “Sexual activity normally occurs between 8 and 10:30 am.” Who knew? I imagine there are scientists somewhere keeping track of the mating habits of the different species of dragonflies using stopwatches.

Today I was happy finally to see a Halloween Pennant dragonfly at Brookside Gardens and take some photographs of him. I love this shot but his wingspan was really wide. I decided to crop out part of the wings so that you can see the details of his face and his wings. I find that dragonflies have wonderfully expressive faces and didn’t want you to miss this face. How can you not love such a face?

I’ll soon be on the lookout for new dragonflies to photograph. Do they have one named for all of the American holidays?

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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