Calico Pennant Dragonfly

beetleman · Post by **beetleman** » Sat Jun 09, 2007 4:36 am

Species Celithemis elisa - Calico Pennant. This is a female, the males are red in color (I hope I get to photograph one...see bugguide link below). Found this in a field behind work. Did not see any males around. it was a breezy day, but this gal let me take about 25 pictures. I just laid on the ground in front of her and waited for the wind to die down every once in a while.
All are full frame, small amount of USM applied
1/250s
F/8
ISO100
same for all

http://bugguide.net/node/view/595/bgimage

Bruce Williams · Post by **Bruce Williams** » Sat Jun 09, 2007 5:03 am

Some nice shots there Doug.

Pic1 shows some beautiful venation and markings and (although a little distracting) the background is just oof enough to avoid spoiling the image. In fact on the plus side, the oof background detail helps to illustrate the transparency of the wings

Pic2 was taken from a particularly unusual and attention grabbing viewpoint - don't recall ever seeing a shot from quite this angle.

The faceted eyes on pic3 play interesting optical tricks with my 1280x1024 TFT monitor as I move my head from side to side. I'm guessing that there must be a critical relationship/ratio between the image resolution (of the eye facets) and my screen resolution/pixel size (Rik?).

Nice capture.

Bruce

Ken Ramos · Post by **Ken Ramos** » Sat Jun 09, 2007 5:15 am

Well I don't know about any monitor tricks on my end but that second image reminds me of an old WWI biplane.

You know Doug, you may not get to use a computer much on your new job but it seems you do have a lot of time to shoot images. You wrote and I hope your employer does not visit this site;

"just laid on the ground in front of her and waited for the wind to die down every once in a while."

Boy what a tough job Doug has.

beetleman · Post by **beetleman** » Sat Jun 09, 2007 5:38 am

Thanks for the great comments guys. These dragonflies seemed to like perches that were close to the ground (8 to 12") , bare sticks with no leaves. I wanted to get a good dorsal view for ID use and the rest I tried to get a little artistic with. I had to get real low for the second photo and that still has the tall grass in the background

. The new job at the greenhouse gives me more specimens and time to shoot (I shot these on my lunch hour Ken), my old job (I still fill in and do some computer work for them) gave me more time to post and less things to shoot

. I have a good collection of photos waiting in the wings...from amphibians to mosses and molds.

Erland R.N. · Post by **Erland R.N.** » Sat Jun 09, 2007 10:49 am

Great captures, like the first one most, with great display of the wings.
I hope one day to be able to photograph a Pennant, they are all so beatiful.

One other way to see it's a female, is the distance between the two appendages at the end of the abdomen. A males appendages are longer and closer together. Colors can sometimes make ID of dragonflies difficult, and often young males are colored like the females.

Erland

beetleman · Post by **beetleman** » Sat Jun 09, 2007 5:06 pm

Thanks Erland. I am a wing man also

And thank you very much for the ID tip.