Not much of a sunrise but Sunday was another good day at the pond on Moosehorn Road. More frogs, waterlilies and a few dragonflies and damselflies.
I posted an Autumn Meadowhawk-Sympetrum vicinum a few days ago, but had a chance for a nice closeup of the face of another.
A crop for the eyes. My focus was just a bit behind where it should have been, but I was targeting the faceted eyes.
A few minutes later I came across this nice Swamp Spreadwing-Lestes vigilax lolling on some cattail reeds.
Both with the 100-400 x2. Next time I have this opportunity I’ll see if I can get two shots, one with this setup and another with the 180 x2 (when it comes back) and see if the crop works better with one or the other.
Stephen Gingold Nature Photography Blog 
The Swamp Spreadwing is a dainty little fairy!
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They are and a delight to watch in flight.
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The mouth of a dragonfly reminds me of the closed mouth of a seal.
The damselfly seems to have an unusually slender abdomen.
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Damselflies for the most part are slender…one is actually named the Slender Spreadwing. There is nothing more slender than a thread-waisted wasp. How their lower abdomen doesn’t fall off is one of nature’s wonders.
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I’ve wondered what purpose such constricted waists serve in wasps.
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Wonderful shots, Steve. I love the way that you were able to capture the ommatidia (the individual optical units) in the dragonfly’s amazing compound eyes. The spreadwing photo is exquisite, with a really nice composition and angle of view–I love the three green stalks, with one in focus and the others blurred in the background without any overlap. That took some really careful framing of the shot.
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I was trying to be sure to obtain good focus on the facets but did sacrifice a bit of sharpness on the chin whiskers. I wish I could say I took the reeds into consideration, but was concerned mostly with the damselfly as it had already moved a few times while I was composing. Thanks, Mike!
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When you are that close, as I am well aware, the depth of field is so shallow that it is all but impossible to have all of a subject’s head in focus. As someone who does landscapes a lot, I suspect that you are more sensitive to the importance of composing your shots than I am. 🙂
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I am concerned with composition most of the time, Mike. But sometimes there is no time as you know from chasing dragonflies and damselflies. You take what they offer and hope for the best. 🙂
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I know that there are some photographers who don’t like to crop and take perverse pride in saying that they do not do so. While I try to compose a shot in camera, I am perfectly ok with using cropping as a composition tool and like to play around with different formats when doing so. Recently I have choosing to show some of my images with a square crop, somewhat reminiscent of using an old twin-lens reflex camera.
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I have been doing some square crops also when I think it complements the subject. As I do that, I obviously have no qualms about cropping. Some of the newer cameras and those from different manufacturers offer your choice of crop within the camera. And a subject may be suited for a particular framing whether is is a standard crop or a custom. Everybody has their own opinion…such as “in camera” photography. Ansel Adams did awesome things to his negatives. I have no problem with doing all we can to obtain the best possible image.
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I had to chuckle at your phrase “when they come back”. And luckily, they (often) do. These shots are really something. Those eyes! The spreadwing is so beautiful and delicate.
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Thanks, Melissa. It takes some patience but is well worth it.
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Sometimes more patience than I have, alas.
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I just tried to comment on your checkerspot but got the message that you deleted your site. What happened?
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When one person took it upon herself to tell me what was wrong with a painting, (over the course of 3 posts) I put it down to bad manners on her part. But then another reader did the same thing, and I realized the blog wasn’t serving its purpose (selling paintings) and instead had become a place where people were coming to criticize me! So I got mad and took it down. Do people do that to you? I am trying to decide what to do next.
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Well, that sucks. It’s a shame people need to feed their egos by tearing down others. So far I’ve only received a few comments over the years that were negative critiques. Most have been positive which I think is mainly due to the sense of friendship many of us have built between ourselves here in the blogosphere. Occasionally someone will ask about a decision I made or make a suggestion but nothing I would consider hurtful.
I don’t know what to suggest. On FB we can block people. I changed my settings to posts visible only for friends rather than public after a few people decided to get a bit personal and abusive over some of my political opinions. Maybe there is a way to do that with WordPress but I haven’t had the need to.
I have made a couple of sales, mostly editorial, as a result of the blog but I don’t have that as a goal. I hope you find a solution so we can continue to enjoy your art.
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It turns out there was an old blog “hidden from view” on WP that I didn’t realize existed. Very few followers so I think I’ll start over with that. It will be more decidedly about selling so I hope it won’t be a turnoff. I’ll try to be discreet about it. If those two women discover it I’ll see if there is a way to block them and if not, maybe tell them directly to back off.
Things can get pretty ugly on FB, can’t they? I’m so pleased that he got called on the carpet in Congress. I hope they are able to cut him down to size.
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Is this a face only a mother could love? 🙂
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I suppose it is but I am no mother yet still love seeing them close. 🙂
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They are definitely fascinating, even if I wouldn’t necessarily call them handsome. 🙂
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Beautiful. Just beautiful.
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Thank you!
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Wonderfully tack sharp!
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Thanks, Belinda!
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Very Nice Steve! Especially liked the extreme closeup!
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Thanks, Reed. It’s just a crop. Wish I had a rail and bellows to get something actually this close.
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Those eyes are simply amazing!
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Aren’t they! As someone who grew up being called four-eyes, I cannot imagine having that many. I remember a cartoon long ago where the artist drew hundreds of the exact same image to illustrate his impression of what compound vision must look like. I am pretty sure it wasn’t accurate, the insect brain must be able to paste it all together, but interesting idea just the same.
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It’s surely not often that we have the opportunity to see this detail in a dragonfly’s face. Very nicely done–and I still think they look like they’re smiling.
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Thanks, Gary. Not quite the smile of a bullfrog but a nice smile just the same.
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The Swamp Spreadwing is just gorgeous – it looks like glass.
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They are among the most beautiful of insects and surprisingly vicious for such delicate creatures. 🙂
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I would never guess that.
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Oh yeah. Here’s a fairly tame video. I was going to share one with a damselfly eating one of its own but it was pretty gory. Hard to feel bad about someone dining on a mosquito.
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Right! I couldn’t watch the whole thing! 🙂
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The other one would have been even harder. As you might imagine, I enjoyed seeing a mosquito devoured. 🙂
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