These images are from a September walk when a little breeze interfered with this being the best lens for the day.
An immature or female Eastern Pondhawk dragonfly perched at the base of a giant Live Oak tree.
I have no idea what either of these flowers are but they had attractive textures, the first with a few petals.
And the second one gone-by, but still interesting.
September 14, 2021
Middleton Place, Charleston, SC
I borrowed Ted’s Tamron 18-400 MM lens this morning and put the range flexibility to good use when I spotted an Eastern Pondhawk on a Lily Pad.
I got a decent closer image of the dragonfly and his shadow.
And a nice view of the scene without changing lenses or cameras.
A small dragonfly working on his hand-stand pose on a hot day.
September 6, 2021
Who could resist three dragonflies lined up in a row?
So these are just a duo as the third fellow took off for a minute.
One of the others gathered some snacks…
Showed off some flight skills…
Then returned to his perch.
These were all taken at 1/1000 sec with the Tamron 180mm prime macro lens.
Bear Island Wildlife Management Area, SC
September 5, 2021
Who could resist three dragonflies lined up in a row?
Some more experimenting with distance and f-stops. A bunch of reeds kept me from the best placement to have all three dragonflies equidistant from me, and we were at the edge of a pond so I had to stay on this side.
And them some distraction with choosing different perches.
And with the dragonfly on the right adjusting his position.
There was also a little breeze, good for keeping bugs off me, not so good for my experiment as the reeds swayed.
These were all taken at 1/1000 sec with the Tamron 180mm prime macro lens.
Bear Island Wildlife Management Area, SC
September 5, 2021
Who could resist three dragonflies lined up in a row?
These dragonflies, which I believe are all Four-spotted Pennants, were quite cooperative as I took this opportunity to experiment with different f-stops to see what ranges might be in focus.
These were all taken at 1/1000 sec with the Tamron 180mm prime macro lens.
I was about three feet (100cm) from the closest one, on the right in first image. Their perches were about 12 inches (30cm) apart left to right and a bit closer than that in their distance from each other front to back.
Bear Island Wildlife Management Area, SC
September 5, 2021
This dragonfly, which I think is a Common Whitetail, was going back and forth between a patch of grass and a sidewalk, perching for 20 or 30 seconds in each place.
He might have been overstuffed with mosquitoes as there was no shortage of them after me.
ID corrections welcome.
I first thought it might be a Banded Pennant, the described variations on each species are confounding.
Hampton Plantation, McClellanville, SC
August 26, 2021
A few more images from last month of patio visitors.
There was competition for these bamboo stakes for weeks.
The few dragonflies around my backyard now don’t seem to be interested.
Here we are staring at the door of September and I have dragonfly images left from early July. Time to move them on!
Fence pickets make great perches and are at a great height for photography.
On the other side of that fence a piece of rebar attracted a Roseate Skimmer.
A slope down into a pond was covered with little flowers and and grass seed heads for perches.
Middleton Place, Charleston, SC
July 7, 2021
