The beauty of dragons

MarkSturtevant · Post by **MarkSturtevant** » Sat Dec 15, 2018 7:45 am

Dragonflies, that is. Here are some pictures of dragonflies from the previous summer.

The Eastern amberwing (Perithemis tenera) is one of our smallest dragonflies. The body is barely an inch long.

Banded pennant (Celithemis fasciata). A dragonfly is very easy to photograph if it has recently emerged and the wings are not fully hardened. I rather like their shiny wings.

Calico pennant (Celithemis elisa).

Halloween pennant (Celithemis eponina).

Painted skimmer (Libellula semifasciata). I was very surprised to see this one. I live just on the margins of its range so they are not common around here. This one was perched a little too high to get it all in focus, so the picture is stitched together by hand from several photographs that were taken at different focal points. It took many hours.

mawyatt · Post by **mawyatt** » Sat Dec 15, 2018 8:51 am

Mark,

These are wonderful images!! Dragonflies have been a favorite for some time, love the double wing approach nature has taken rather than a larger single wing.

Do you know if the double wing has a fundamental aerodynamic advantage over a larger single wing?

I fondly remember long ago when Dragonflies and Bumble Bees couldn't fly based upon our (limited) aero & fluid dynamics knowledge

High speed video photography showed the wings moved in a figure "8" pattern (not just up and down) as viewed from the wing tip looking toward the insect body. Of course this "explained" why they could fly

Nature has always been well ahead and she has figured things out for us, all we need do is look in the right places

Best,

SteveB · Post by **SteveB** » Sat Dec 15, 2018 10:37 pm

Nice pictures! I like how stacking gives one the freedom to photograph things from an angle and also how it allows one to have a much more out of focus background which concentrates one's attention on the subject. Is yours hand held, and did you move back and forth in burst mode,or re-focus the lens between shots?

MarkSturtevant · Post by **MarkSturtevant** » Sun Dec 16, 2018 3:19 pm

mawyatt wrote:Mark,

Do you know if the double wing has a fundamental aerodynamic advantage over a larger single wing?

Best,

I am not sure, but I do have a pretty extensive Entomology background though my education on that was some time ago. Still, one can make good sounding generalizations.
Dragonflies will often beat their front and rear wings alternately. When they do that, I can imagine that they are making some use of the vortex of air from one set of wings to add to the lift on the other wings. I think they often have this wing pattern for slower flight or for hovering flight, and it would make sense to use that method under those conditions to stay in the air.
Not sure what they do when they are flying at speed.

MarkSturtevant · Post by **MarkSturtevant** » Sun Dec 16, 2018 3:27 pm

SteveB wrote:Nice pictures! I like how stacking gives one the freedom to photograph things from an angle and also how it allows one to have a much more out of focus background which concentrates one's attention on the subject. Is yours hand held, and did you move back and forth in burst mode,or re-focus the lens between shots?

Hand held, though I use a steadying pole to help me hold still, and this also helps to save energy. Staying as motionless as possible, picture after picture, while holding a heavy camera with a flash rig in an awkward position is surprisingly tiring, especially when one tends to not breathe while doing it.
Focusing is done by rocking back and forth, though I do use a bit of manual focus on the lens to supplement that.

Yawns · Post by **Yawns** » Sun Dec 16, 2018 6:30 pm

The 3rd and 4th pictures are beautiful.. congrats for the series ...

I also love dragonflies.. they are beautiful and recently I bought a book (just recently published) charting and describing all the species present in Portugal (mind you Portugal a small territory, the size of the state of Maine or kentucky) .. we have 65 species.
but now with global warming and the raise of the temperatures some "new" species are migrating here from the North of Africa (it's just a short flight

)

so the book added more interest.. it's good to identify them correctly and read about each species ..

Howard Mayo · Post by **Howard Mayo** » Tue Jan 22, 2019 3:23 pm

Really nice shots Mark, thanks for posting.
Dragonflies definitely are one of natures most ancient and elegant designs.
Read today about dragonflies and motion camouflage, fascinating stuff.