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Posts Tagged ‘Huntley Meadows Park’

Twelve-spotted Skimmer

Posted in Dragonflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , on September 27, 2014| 5 Comments »

It won’t be long before most of the dragonflies are gone for the season, so I am really enjoying them while they are still around. A little over a week ago, I was able to capture images of some male Twelve-spotted Skimmer dragonflies (Libellula pulchella), a species that I had not seen previously this summer.

Twelve-spotted Skimmer

In the first shot, the dragonfly seems to be eating something that is bright red in color. I can’t tell for sure, but when I zoom in, it looks like it might be a ladybug. Whatever the case, I am happy that I was able to frame the shot to be able to get some of the yellow meadow flowers into the background.

In the other shots, I worked to get the wings into focus by shooting on a plane horizontal to their position. The dragonflies were reasonably cooperative and I am pretty happy with the resulting images.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Dragonfly lunch

Posted in Dragonflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on September 26, 2014| 8 Comments »

What do dragonflies eat for lunch? I stumbled upon this dragonfly earlier in September as it was beginning to enjoy a freshly caught insect. Judging from the long legs and wings of the prey, it looks like the dragonfly is munching on a crane fly.

The dragonfly was so focused on eating that it let me get pretty close without flying away and I was able to take a number of shots from different angles and with different settings. I defer to others on identification of the dragonfly species. I initially thought it was a Great Blue Skimmer, but the eye color seems wrong.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Snake tests the water

Posted in Nature, Photography, Reptiles, tagged , , , , , , on September 24, 2014| 14 Comments »

Over the last few weeks, I’ve repeatedly seen a Northern Watersnake (Nerodia sipedon) sunning itself on a log at my local marsh. I don’t know whether it was hunger or boredom that prompted it to move, but I was utterly fascinated this past weekend as I watched the snake make preparations to dive into the water.

The snake initially sensed the conditions by sticking out its tongue and then gradually slid its head into the water. After testing the water with its head, it slowly slithered into the muddy waters of the marsh, probably in search of fish or frogs.

Northern Watersnake

I’ve never before used the slideshow feature on my blog, but decided to try it out here to show a sequence of shots of the snake diving into the water. (I think the slide show starts automatically. If not, click on one of the photos and it should start.)

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The alternative to the slide show is to do the gallery look, in which you click through the images at your own pace (and the images show up a lot bigger). Here’s the same images in that format. You start by clicking on any one of the images. Do you prefer this look?

Just for fun, here’s a blown-up view of the image in which the snake is sticking out its tongue. Click on the image (if you dare) to see a higher resolution view of the snake.

Northern Watersnake

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Not as fast as an eagle

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on September 23, 2014| 8 Comments »

Can you react faster than an eagle can? Yesterday, I was getting ready to step out of the brush that surrounds one of the ponds at my local marsh, when I spotted a large dark shape in a dead tree that overlooks the water. I suspected that it might be a Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), since I had seen eagles perched on this tree a couple of times in the past.

As I stepped forward and was starting to bring my camera to my eye, a juvenile Bald Eagle took off. The eagle flew upwards so quickly that I had trouble finding it and keeping it in my viewfinder, as you can see in my first shot. I got a few more shots as I tracked the eagle’s flight, but in most of them, the eagle’s head is obscured by its outstretched wings. Just before the eagle flew behind the trees in the distance, I got a reasonably clear shot, the second image below.

What did I learn? If an eagle spots me at the same time that I spot him, his reaction times are going to be quicker than mine. Someone I’m going to have to figure out a way to be more stealthy and more ready the next time I find myself in a situation like this. That will be my challenge this autumn as I start to take more shots of birds as the insect population gradually decreases.

eagle1_blog_sepeagle2_blog_sep© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Handsome Meadow Katydid

Posted in Art, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , , on September 22, 2014| 8 Comments »

Do you have a favorite insect? I realize that’s a strange question and, if pressed, most people probably would respond with the name of a butterfly or perhaps a ladybug or a dragonfly, but my favorite is unquestionably the Handsome Meadow Katydid (Orchelimum pulchellum).

Two summers ago, I had my initial encounter with the rainbow-colored grasshopper-like insect at my local marshland park and it was love at first sight. It was so unexpected to see those beautiful blue eyes staring at me with apparent curiosity. The amazing colors of the body are so vivid and varied that one of my friends accused me of creating them in Photoshop. I can’t help but be cheered up by the mere sight of one of these beauties.

There was a lot of reconstruction work at my marsh this past year and water levels are a lot higher than in the past. All summer I waited for my friends to reappear, fearing that the changed habitat or the polar vortex of this past winter had adversely affected their survival. Suddenly, two weeks ago I started hearing from others that the Handsome Meadow Katydids were back.

Last week, I finally saw a few of these beauties myself and took this shot of one of them. In addition to the gorgeous colors, you can’t help but notice the really long legs and antennae (is one of them missing).

I don’t care who you are—you have to agree that these katydids really are handsome, even if it’s not at the top of your list. As for me, it’s still my favorite.

Handsome Meadow Katydid

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Flying below the radar

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on September 21, 2014| 7 Comments »

Sometimes when the Great Egrets (Ardea alba) are moving from one place to another at Huntley Meadows Park, my local marshland park, they fly really low, almost like they are in stealth mode and are trying to avoid being picked up on the radar.

Great Egret

Great EgretGreat Egret

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Six-spotted Fishing Spider

Posted in Arachnids, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on September 20, 2014| 12 Comments »

One of my fellow photographers, Walter Sanford, pointed at the water and exclaimed, “Spider!” A spider in the water? Yes, fishing spiders don’t make a web and instead hunt by sensing the vibrations on the surface of the water.

There are numerous species of fishing spiders, but I think this may be a Six-spotted Fishing Spider (Dolomedes triton). Yes, I realize there are more than six white spots on its back—apparently the name refers to six dark spots on the underside of the spider, a part of the spider that I have never seen.

Six-spotted Fishing Spider

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

 

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Young green darner

Posted in Dragonflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , , on September 19, 2014| 12 Comments »

As I was walking through a meadow at my local marsh this past Monday, dragonflies would take off from the high grass and low vegetation as I approached. Most of them appeared to be Common Whitetail dragonflies (Plathemis lydia), a species that seems to like to perch on the ground.

One of the dragonflies, however, really caught my eye, because it was larger than the rest and was a pastel green in color. At first, I thought it might be a female Eastern Pondhawk (Erythemis simplicicollis), one of the few green dragonflies that I have encountered. The green dragonfly flew weakly away and came to rest on some low vegetation a short distance away. As I drew closer, I noted that the dragonfly was hanging from the vegetation and was not perching on it, so I knew it was not an Eastern Pondhawk, which perches horizontally.

When I got a clear look at the dragonfly’s body, I could see that it was shaped like a darner, and I concluded the beautifully-colored dragonfly was probably a young Common Green Darner (Anax junius), judging from its shape and pale coloration. I hadn’t really considered the possibility that this might be a Green Darner, because dragonflies of this species are really strong fliers and I had never seen one behave like this.

I’m going out shooting later today, searching for more beautiful butterflies and dragonflies, enjoying the good news that they are still here with us.

Common Green DarnerCommon Green Darner

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Clouded Sulphur

Posted in Butterflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, Summer, tagged , , , , , , on September 18, 2014| 8 Comments »

Strange as it seems, I have been seeing more butterflies in the waning days of summer than I did at its height. I think that this little beauty, which I spotted on Monday at my local marshland park, is a Clouded Sulphur butterfly (Colias philodice).

Clouded Sulphur

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Smeared Dagger caterpillar

Posted in Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , on September 17, 2014| 6 Comments »

I love to photograph insects with cool or unusual names, like this caterpillar known as the Smeared Dagger Moth Caterpillar (Acronicta oblinita). Who makes up these crazy names? Freddy Krueger? Jason? Someone obviously had been been watching too many slasher or horror films.

The first time that I photographed this caterpillar, I called it the Pittsburgh Steelers caterpillar, because its colors matched those of the Steelers’ uniforms. I even proposed that the Steelers adopt the caterpillar as a mascot, but the idea didn’t catch on—a fuzzy caterpillar probably doesn’t match the Steelers macho image anyways.

Now that I have captured the Smeared Dagger, I’m searching for one of my previous subjects, the Twice-stabbed Stink Bug (Cosmopepla lintneriana). Yes, that’s a real insect. You can’t just make this stuff up, or maybe you can.

Smeared Dagger Moth caterpillar

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Encounter with a Painted Lady

Posted in Butterflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , on September 16, 2014| 4 Comments »

I ran into a painted lady yesterday in a meadow at my local marshland park. No, I did not have a secret rendezvous with a tattooed female, but a chance encounter with this beauty, a Painted Lady butterfly (Vanessa cardui).

Painted Lady

The weather is getting cooler and the days are getting shorter, but as long as butterflies are still flying, it feels like summer to me.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Changing light

Posted in Butterflies, Flowers, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , , , on September 15, 2014| 10 Comments »

As this Great Spangled Fritillary butterfly (Speyeria cybele) moved about on a flower, the light hit it in different ways, beautifully illuminating its colorful wings.

 

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

 

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Mocha Emerald dragonfly

Posted in Dragonflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on September 14, 2014| 6 Comments »

When you photograph something really cool, do you return to the same location with the hope of finding your subject again? In late August, I spotted a Mocha Emerald dragonfly (Somatochlora linearis) for the first time and was really excited, but I wanted to get some better shots.

Over the course of this summer, I have learned that some dragonflies are very habitat-specific—you can only find them in places where the water or vegetation have certain characteristics. So I returned on the 5th of September and followed the same shallow stream and was thrilled to find another Mocha Emerald. Initially I caught sight of the dragonfly in flight and wasn’t sure that it was a Mocha Emerald until it landed. Only them could I see the really narrow abdomen and unusual terminal appendage that are characteristic of this species.

Getting a shot was a bit of a technical challenge. The area was heavily shaded, but there was some light coming in from directly behind the dragonfly, creating a silhouette. I cranked up the ISO to 1250 and underexposed a bit and got the second image below after a bit of post processing. I decided to use my pop-up flash to try to balance the light coming from the back and got the first image, my favorite one.

However, I really wanted to get more of the wings into the photo and I started to circle around the perched dragonfly. Unfortunately, one foot slid into the water of the shallow stream and I composed the third shot with one foot in the water and one on the bank, not exactly an optimal shooting position.

When I tried to continue my movement to frame the dragonfly from a different angle, it flew away. I suspect that the Mocha Emeralds are now gone from the season, but I may return one last time to that location to see if there are any stragglers. I might get lucky again.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Late summer bee

Posted in Flowers, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , on September 13, 2014| 16 Comments »

During these last few days of summer, the bees seem especially busy. I love the sight of bees covered in pollen, especially unusual ones like this striped bee (I think it is a bee, but would welcome corrections to my identification).

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Tattered dragonfly

Posted in Dragonflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , , on September 9, 2014| 9 Comments »

One of the dangers of shooting with a macro lens is that I am often so focused on shooting close-up that I forget to step back and look at the bigger picture.

A couple of days ago, I posted a photo of a dragonfly basking in the sun and felt pretty content that I had been able to capture a detailed shot of its eyes and face. I had instantly gravitated to several close-up images to the point that I temporarily forgot that my initial shots had been from a greater distance. As a result, I made my preliminary identification on the basis of the facial shot alone.

After I posted the image on Facebook, one of my fellow photographers, Walter Sanford, who is much more of an expert on dragonflies than I am, asked me if I had any shots of the dragonfly’s entire body, probably with a desire to check my identification. When I reviewed my more distant shots of the dragonfly, I was immediately struck by how tattered the wings were of this female Great Blue Skimmer (Libellula vibrans). Sure, I’ve seen lots of dragonflies with minor damage to the wings, but these are seriously tattered.

When I posted these follow-up images on Facebook, Walter replied, “Definitely an old female Great Blue Skimmer dragonfly, as indicated by its tattered wings, coloration, and flanges beneath the eighth abdominal segment. The flanges are used to scoop and hold a few drops of water when laying eggs (oviposition), hence the family name “skimmer.” ”

Be sure to check out Walter’s blog for his wonderful shots of dragonflies and his more  scientific descriptions of his subjects. My background was more in the liberal arts area rather than in science, and my writing in my blog tends to be a reflection of that background.
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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Late Summer Downy Woodpecker

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, Summer, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on September 8, 2014| 7 Comments »

I don’t know where they have been hiding, but for several months this summer I hadn’t seen a single woodpecker at my local marsh. Consequently, I was really happy when I sighted this Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens) right in front of me this past weekend. Downy Woodpeckers are small, but they make up for what they lack in size with an amazing amount of energy—they never seem to stand still.

downy_fall_blog

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Basking dragonfly

Posted in Dragonflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, Portraits, tagged , , , , , , , , , on September 7, 2014| 8 Comments »

I was suffering in the heat and humidity on Friday, but this dragonfly, which I think is a female Great Blue Skimmer (Libellula vibrans), seemed to enjoy basking in the sunlight and let me get really close for this shot.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Spotted Orbweaver

Posted in Arachnids, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on September 6, 2014| 7 Comments »

As I gazed across the little creek that I was following, I spotted a spider hanging in midair. The spider scrambled up one of its silken threads as I approached and stopped just short of the branch from which it had been hanging. It was pretty dark in the shade, so I cranked up the ISO to 1250, popped up the built-in flash, and propped the camera against another tree for stability.

Of the images that I attempted, this is the best one I managed of what I believe is a Spotted Orbweaver spider (Neoscona crucifera).

Neoscona crucifera

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Osprey catch

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on September 5, 2014| 5 Comments »

For the first time in my experience, ospreys have been hanging out at my local marsh this summer, probably because of the higher water levels as a result of a massive wetland restoration project. I love watching the ospreys soaring high in the air. They are generally too far aware for me to capture their high-speed dives into the water, but occasionally I will see one catch a fish. Recently I captured some shots of the various wing positions of an osprey flying away with its freshly caught fish.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

 

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Fritillary butterfly on thistle

Posted in Art, Butterflies, Flowers, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, Summer, tagged , , , , , , , on September 4, 2014| 16 Comments »

As I came out of the woods into a meadow at my local marshland park, I caught sight of some bright orange butterflies, which I could immediately identify as Great Spangled Fritillary butterflies (Speyeria cybele). The butterflies were concentrating their attention on a small cluster of plants which looked to be some kind of thistle.

I moved closer to get some shots, wading through the vegetation, which by this time of the summer is chest-high. I’ve already learned the hard way about the “joys” of chiggers and ticks, but I tossed my concerns to the side and boldly stepped forward. Fortunately for me, the butterflies were distracted with their feeding activity and did not fly away at my approach.

The sunlight was pretty strong and the look of the photo changed a lot as I circled around the butterflies, as you can see from the images below. I took a lot of shots, some of which I have not yet processed, but I was so happy with the images that I captured that I figured I better post some while it is still summer. Don’t be surprised if you see a few more images like this in the near future.

Great Spangled Fritillary

Great Spangled FritillaryGreat Spangled Fritillary

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Rest at the end of the summer

Posted in Dragonflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, Summer, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on September 2, 2014| 6 Comments »

You know that summer is coming to a close when the dragonflies that were in constant flight earlier in the season seem to be resting more often, like this Black Saddlebags dragonfly (Tramea lacerata) that one of my fellow photographers, Walter Sanford, pointed out this past weekend at my local marsh. This dragonfly kept flying back and forth between two perches that were tantalizingly just out of the range of the 180mm lens that I had on my camera. I didn’t dare to take the time to change my lens, knowing that the dragonfly would almost certainly fly away at the most inopportune moment, so I ended up cropping a lot, especially in the first image.

The only shots that I could get of Saddlebags dragonflies earlier in the summer were in-flight shots and I have already posted some shots of a Black Saddlebags in the air. I realized, though, that I had not posted an image of its more colorful counterpart, the Carolina Saddlebags (Tramea carolina) that I photographed during a visit to Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens in Richmond, Virginia. I took that shot (the third one below) from a pretty long distance, but was able to achieve focus and capture some of the wonderful details of this beautiful red dragonfly.

Black Saddlebags dragonflyBlack Saddlebags dragonfly

Carolina Saddlebags dragonfly

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Mocha Emerald

Posted in Dragonflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , , on September 1, 2014| 14 Comments »

What’s a Mocha Emerald? No, it’s not the newest Seattle coffee craze—it’s a dragonfly.

I was thrilled this past Friday to spot a type of dragonfly at Huntley Meadows Park that I had never seen before—a Mocha Emerald (Somatochlora linearis). Fellow photographer and blogger, Walter Sanford, saw some in the park earlier in the summer, but I thought that it was probably too late for me to find one. It’s nice to be surprised.

Initially, I didn’t know what type of dragonfly I had photographed and knew only that its body shape was different from the ones that I had seen previously. Serendipitously, later in the day l ran into the manager of the park, Kevin Munroe, a noted dragonfly expert who runs the website Dragonflies of Northern Virginia, and he helped me make a tentative identification.

This one has somewhat tattered wings–it looks like he had a tough summer.

Mocha Emerald

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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More spider drama

Posted in Arachnids, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , , on August 31, 2014| 11 Comments »

When I encountered this spider hanging on a branch just above eye-level, I knew I was going to have a problem getting a stable shooting position, so I decided to use my popup flash. It added some additional light and a little drama, though it is pretty obvious that I used it. Like the spider image that I posted earlier today, the image has a really narrow depth of field, a consequence of having to shoot hand held, and only a few of the spider’s legs are in focus.

spider2_small_blog

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Spider drama

Posted in Arachnids, Art, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , on August 31, 2014| 9 Comments »

This summer I haven’t been seeing any of the large orb-weaver spiders at my local marsh that I observed in previous years, but the small spiders can be equally beautiful.

I spotted this little spider when I was hiking through the woods. There wasn’t really enough room to set up my tripod, so I ended up taking the shot handheld with the available light, which meant my depth of field was pretty limited. Although my normal instinct is to move in really close, I decided to take some shots from a slight distance and I like one of the resulting images so much that I am presenting it with almost no cropping (which is unusual for my insect shots). I especially like the interplay of light and shadows on the different elements in the scene, which together produce a sense of drama.

spider1_small_blog

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Kiss of a wasp

Posted in Flowers, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, Summer, tagged , , , , , , on August 30, 2014| 17 Comments »

I don’t know much about the intimate life of wasps, but it sure looked to me like one of them is giving the other a loving nibble on the back of its neck. Both of them were covered in a lot of pollen, like they had just had a roll in the hay, figuratively speaking.

The two of them had flown to this flower in what appeared to be a mating position, though I can’t tell if the wasps are actually hooked up in this shot. My experience with dragonflies, however, has shown me that insects can mate in all kinds of unusual positions.

I am comfortable with moving in close for photos of bees, but I decided that in this case it was prudent to maintain a respectful distance from the wasps.

wasp kiss

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Crouching heron, hidden dragonfly

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on August 29, 2014| 7 Comments »

Why was this Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) crouching in the water? Was he playing hide-and-seek with his heron friends? Was he seeking shelter in the shade?

The more that I watched the heron fix his attention on the eye-level branches, the more I became convinced that he was stalking dragonflies. Several times he advanced forward slowly, never once looking down at the water, but I never saw him make the rapid thrust that he uses when catching fish. It seems to me that he would get a better reward for his efforts by catching fish and frogs, but maybe he simply wanted some variety in his diet.

When I departed, the heron was still crouching and the dragonflies remained hidden.

Great Blue Heron

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Beetle on goldenrod

Posted in Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , on August 28, 2014| 12 Comments »

Goldenrod seems to act like a magnet for all kinds of flying and crawling insects and earlier this week I was fascinated by a large beetle crawling around and through the goldenrod. I haven’t yet been able to identify the beetle, but I had a lot of fun trying to move in close with my macro lens and capture its image from various angles.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Preying dragonfly

Posted in Dragonflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , , , , on August 27, 2014| 13 Comments »

Dragonflies are so beautiful that I sometimes forget that they are also fierce predators. Last weekend at my local marsh, I captured this image of a female Eastern Pondhawk dragonfly (Erythemis simplicicollis) feeding on another dragonfly, which looks like it might be a female Blue Dasher (Pachydiplax longipennis).

The dragonfly is perched on the end of one of the slats of a railing that along the edge of an inclined section of the boardwalk. I cropped the image to focus viewers’ attention on the dragonfly, but I also like the second version of the same photo, which is close to the original view when I took the shot. Somehow those three slats remind me of a row of tombstones, a memorial to the predator’s prey.

Eastern Pondhawk

Eastern Pondhawk

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Surrounded by cannibals

Posted in Humor, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on August 26, 2014| 10 Comments »

I never realized that I was surrounded by cannibals. No, I did not discover a pile of skulls or a string of shrunken heads, but almost every time recently that I have gone out into my local marsh, I have spotted Red-footed Cannibalflies (Promachus rufipes).

These insects are big and they buzz as they fly by me, so they are hard to miss. I have read that they are vicious predators, but I had never caught one red-handed with prey (or perhaps I should say red-footed) until yesterday. I can’t quite identify the prey, but it looks like it might be some kind of small bee. If so, it wouldn’t bee too surprising, given that one of the nicknames for this species in the “Bee Panther.”

I know that I shouldn’t be worried about these cannibals, but a slight chill went through me yesterday when one of these insects landed on the lenshood of my camera and looked up at me, looking very much like he was sizing me up

Red-footed Cannibalfly

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Heron and rock

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, Uncategorized, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on August 24, 2014| 10 Comments »

The Great Blue Herons (Ardea herodias) at my local marsh seem to have grown accustomed to the presence of people and some of them like to fish near the boardwalk. This one was so close that I had to lean backwards over the edge of the edge of the boardwalk to fit the entire heron into these shots—zooming was not an option, given that I was using a lens of a fixed focal length, a 180mm macro lens.

While I was observing the heron, it concentrated its activity around a rock that stuck out of the water, sometimes perching on it and sometimes circling around it. I hope the heron had better luck during the rest of the day, because it did not have any luck at all as I watched and waited in vain to capture a big catch.

Great Blue Heron Huntley Meadows Parkheron3_rocks_blog

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Orange Bluet

Posted in Dragonflies, Humor, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on August 23, 2014| 12 Comments »

I know that damselflies come in many colors, but my brain wanted to cramp up when I was told that this stunning orange damselfly was a bluet. An orange bluet? Aren’t bluets blue?

Apparently that is not always the case, and this little beauty is in fact a male Orange Bluet damselfly (Enallagma signatum). This shot looks like it was done with flash, but I double checked the EXIF data and confirmed that it was simply an effect caused simply by using exposure compensation and metering carefully on the subject. Normally, I am not a big fan of a black background, which can be caused when the light from the flash overpowers the ambient light, but I think that it works well in this shot, which looks almost like it was shot in a studio.

In the second shot, the brown color of the muddy water shows through in a way that is a little more natural. I took this shot when the damselfly was farther away than in the first shot and I like the way that it shows a bit more of the environment than in the first image.

One of the advantages of shooting in bright light and on a tripod was that I was able to shoot at ISO 100 and at f/11, which gave me images that were a lot cleaner than I often get.

orange1_blogorange2_blog

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

 

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