Monthly Archives: August 2012
Variable Dancer (Violet Dancer). Emmon’s Preserve
The Variable Dancer is, as its name implies, the only Dragon or, in this case, Damselfly which has three distinct subspecies which vary enough in appearance to warrant individual common names. This is the “Violet” Dancer of the north and northeast. There is also the “Smokey-winged Dancer” of the southeast, west to the Mississippi, and the “Black” Dancer of Florida.
But they are all the same species, and intergrades of all verities exist where there is overlap in territory. Maine is far enough from any other variant so it is safe to say this is a pure Argia fumipennis violacea. I like the interesting angle on this shot. It makes me smile, somehow.
The female is much plainer and much more difficult to sort from other Dancer females…except by proximity to the male, and tandem pairs, as in the 3rd shot, help a lot with that.
You have admit (or at least I have to admit) that the violet color on this damselfly is quite striking.
Canon SX40HS. Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation. 1680mm equivalent field of view. f5.8 @ 1/320th to 1/1000th @ ISO 200 to 400. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Ebony Jewelwing, Emmon’s Preserve
I intended to get back to Emmon’s Preserve and the little tumbling falls on the Batson River in early August to catch the mating dance of the Ebony Jewelwings that live there, but the press of affairs (as they say) and the fact that we were a car down from mid-July to mid-August kept me from it until yesterday afternoon. There are still Ebony Jewelwings by the rapids, but the mating flights were all over.
Still, an Ebony Jewelwing is a an Ebony Jewelwing…with that unmistakable bright metallic green body flashing in the patches of sun in the forest and over the stream. Except, of course, when it is electric blue.
While you could be forgiven for thinking this is a different species, this is the same bug, just in different light. When the bug moves on, it will be green again. This is a much rarer view, generally you only get a glimpse of this look as the Jewelwing settles briefly in the necessary light, and then flits on. The emerald green is what you see 96% of the time.
Canon SX40HS. Program with iContrast. 1680mm equivalent field of view. 1) –1/3EV exposure compensation, f5.8 @ 1/200th @ ISO 160. 2) –1/3EV exposure compensation. f5.8 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 320. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Weather at the Pond. Happy Sunday!
Yesterday afternoon I took my electric scooter out, even though, at a casual glance, my weather app said there was a 67% chance of thundershowers. The great thing about weather apps, to me, is that you have access to real time radar maps of your area. At the click of an icon you can check the area to the west (at least here in New England it is the west, though certain seasons you do have to have an eye to the south) to see what weather is, or is not, coming. When I looked at the map, I could see storms well to the south of us, and tracking east out to sea, but nothing to the west…so I headed out, and had a good 3 pond photoprowl. And all under spectacular storm skies. And yes, I got home safe and dry.
This is the little pond where I am doing a lot of my dragon and damselfly hunting these days. As you see it is really drainage for a small industrial complex, now converted to a health care center. Health care is a major industry in Kennebunk. We have probably a dozen large residential care centers, three pharmacies, and two major medical outliers (mini hospitals) from larger full-service facilities in the area. And that is not counting all the physicians who are in practice on their own. Now if you live in a city you are probably thinking “ha, that’s nothing” but Kennebunk is a small town of 11,000 souls. We have become, somehow, an assisted living retirement destination. Go figure? (Actually the whole southern coast of Maine is hopping with residential centers…I have never lived anywhere where there were so many.)
That is not, of course, why we moved here…but, maybe because I turned 65 this week, it is more apparent to me now than it was when we got here 17 years ago.
But back to the image. I just like the intense sky and the empty parking lot…and the way the sky and trees reflect in the water. For me the shot has a lot of quiet tension…it should be pretty static…restful…calm…but that sky just keeps pulling the emotions in other directions.
Technically the scene was underexposed to catch all the detail in the sky. Canon SX40HS. Program with iContrast and –1EV exposure compensation. 24mm equivalent field of view. f5.6 @ 1/1250th @ ISO 160. I brought up the shadows (basically the whole foreground back to the building) using the selective exposure controls in Lightroom, and then added a final Graduated Filter effect from bottom to top to increase the brightness of the foreground for a more natural look. I think it works.
And for the Sunday thought. Lots of places to go here. At 65 I have to kind of, sort of, wish there were a life-weather app that would give me real-time radar of the life-storms that are, or are not, moving in from the west.
I also got my disappointingly small pension packet from the limited time I was in the pension system at my most recent employer (before they closed the system and went to mandatory 401ks), and had the inevitable discussion with my boss about when I was planning on retiring and what that means for my work, and the nature of my job, over the next few years. A kind of “lets get everything we can out of you while we phase you out” talk. Heady stuff. Stormy stuff if you let it get to you.
And I am feeling much like this image. There is a quiet, almost a calm, certainly a beauty…but an undeniable tension. I am not anticipating storms, but I can not deny the possibility. And yet, at my best, I would not have it any other way. I have lived my life by faith…never building barns (pension plans), as it is in Jesus’ parable…and, life-weather app or no, I know who has my hours and my days and all my years in hand. I will go on as I have gone. And I will, where ever I encounter it, celebrate the beautiful tension of living in this world.
And yes, I fully expect to get home, if not completely dry, at least completely safe!
Savannah Sparrow
A week ago today I made a brief run out to the Blueberry Plains (Kennebunk Plains otherwise) to see how the Northern Blazing Star bloom was shaping up. While there this Savannah Sparrow popped up and put on a little show for me. The Kennebunk Plains is one of the few places in Southern Maine where Savannah is likely to be seen. Further south, in Cape May, New Jersey for instance, I see them a lot right behind the dunes along the ocean, but for some reason, here, they rare in that habitat. Much more likely on the Plains…which stands to reason given their name. 🙂
Canon SX40HS. Program with iContrast and –1EV exposure compensation. 1680mm equivalent field of view (840 optical plus 2x digital tel-converter function). f5.8 @ 1/320th to 1/500th @ ISO 100. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Penstimon? From the Yard, Kennebunk ME
So I woke up, at home, after 4 days in Virginia, and realized I did not have a pic for FloralFriday over on Google+. Out to the yard to see what is in bloom. This, I am pretty sure, is one of the apparently infinite Penstimons. It has been growing in our yard since we got there 17 years ago. My wife found one plant in the center of a unkempt garden plot out front, which was two the next year, and she started transplanting it around the yard. By now we have several stands of it.
For this shot I backed away from the plant about 10 feet and shot at 1240mm equivalent field of view. That is 150mm real focal length (plus 1.5x digital tel-extender) on the Canon SX40HS, and it gives a very nice bokeh, isolating the purples and the tight little green pearls of the flower spike against the mottled green of the out-of-focus flower patch behind.
Camera as above. Program with –1EV exposure compensation. f5.8 @ 1/200th @ ISO 500. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness…and auto color temperature to offset the early open shade.
Six-Spotted Fishing Spider
I am in Virginia for meetings at the office this week, and during lunch yesterday I went down to the little industrial estate pond at the edge of our parking lot. There were six species of dragonflies, including a lot of really fresh looking female Eastern Pondhawks (and a Belted Kingfisher!), but the highlight was this spider. According the wiki on the subject, Six-spotted Fishing Spiders should have been common just about everywhere I have lived or visited in North America, but I am certain this is the first one I have ever seen…or at least the first one I have ever looked at. They walk on water, but they live along the shore. This one is hunting. Apparently they will sit like this on the shore or over water, for hours, waiting for prey to come within reach. They can dive under a few inches as well. They are looking for tadpoles, invertebrates, and the occasional small minnow. Hence the name.
The striking pattern and large size (as big as a common Garden Spider) makes them easy to identify (once you actually look at one). I think it could be my best spider to date!
Canon SX40HS. Program with iContrast and –1 EV exposure compensation. 1680mm equivalent field of view. f5.8 @ 1/640th @ ISO 400. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Here Froggy!
There are lots of frogs, of course, at the pond where I am doing most of my dragonfly and damselfly hunting these days. Sometimes I just have to shoot one. I am always fascinated by that brass eye, which always seems to be looking right at you, no matter where you stand.
Canon SX40HS. Program with iContrast and –1 EV exposure compensation. 1240mm equivalent field of view. f5.8 @ 1/320th @ ISO 100. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Familiar Bluet Mating Wheel
As difficult as it is to imagine (at least for me) today is my 65th birthday. That used to be a real milestone, when it was the legal retirement age, and it still carries some weight. You can not believe the number of Medicare Supplement letters I have gotten in the past 6 months! (Unless you have been there yourself.) But no…I don’t feel any different today than I did yesterday, or significantly different than I did a year ago for that matter. In fact, there are parts of me that I begin to suspect do not age at all. Mostly this is a good thing.
For instance I am still learning…though I am beginning to realize that Damselflies may be right at the edge of my attention span. They are not easy to identify, especially from a photo or in the kinds of looks you get in the field…unless you catch them and use a hand-lens. I am probably not going there.
So I think this is a pair of Familiar Bluets mating. Beyond its ID value, I like the image because of the other elements as well: The spiny seed heads, the arch of the reed, and the way the damselflies are framed by the broken reed in the background.
Canon SX40HS. Program with iContrast and –1 EV exposure compensation. (You might have noticed that my conventional –1/3EV has advanced to –1EV over the past few weeks. This is largely due to the damselflies, and specifically to the blues on the flies. They are so intense that they burn to white even at –1/3EV.) 1680mm equivalent field of view. f5.8 @ 1/500th @ ISO 125. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Eastern Pondhawk with Prey
I found this female Eastern Pondhawk with prey (I can’t say more than that…I can not make out exactly what she is eating in any of my shots) at Quest Pond in Kennebunk ME. I angled around her, in and out, for several moments attempting to catch a clear view, but her posture, with the wings forward (typical Pondhawk), and her position on the limb, kept the prey well shielded. Several Pondhawks, both male and female, frequent the edge of the forest here where there is a slight opening, about 250 feet from the pond’s edge, and generally shaded.
I like this shot because it shows off the transparency of the wings.
Canon SX40HS. Program with iContrast and –1 EV exposure compensation. 1680mm equivalent (840mm optical zoom plus 2x digital tel-converter function). f5.8 @ 1/200th @ ISO 125.
Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Bicyclists on the Kennebunk Bridle Trail. Happy Sunday
Since getting interested in dragon and damselflies, I spend a lot of my time outdoors looking down, or looking in-close at least. When I close my eyes at night, small agile forms flit across my inner light. Oh, I still look up for birds, and the occasional spectacular landscape opportunity, but those images come as breaks in the dragon and damsel hunt. I will be traveling to new vistas, my first trip to the Netherlands, in a few weeks, and, hopefully I can get back into the habit of looking up and out…otherwise I may come back with nothing but the bugs and closer birds of Holland. 🙂
So I am posting this atypical shot, taken a few days ago on the Kennebunk Bridle Path, as a reminder to myself to look up an out. I am always attracted by the light in the tunnel of trees over the Bridle Path just here, and have attempted to photograph it many times. When these cyclists passed me, I turned to watch them cross the light, and had just the presence of mind to shift the camera off my dragonfly settings and grab a few shots.
The image has a posterish look to it, emphasized by the higher ISO and the long-lens perspective, so I brought that up a bit more in processing. I like the result quite a bit. It has a certain serenity to it…an gentle arrested action feel…and Alice down the rabbit hole from the tunnel effect…that gives it a painterly charm.
Canon SX40HS. Program with iContrast and –1 EV exposure compensation. Around 600mm equivalent field of view. f5.8 @ 1/160th @ ISO 640. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness, and for that poster like look.
And for the Sunday thought: We often retreat to nature to get away from man…man and all his works. It is the John Muir attitude that traces its modern roots to the late 18th century romantic naturalists and their rebellion against the industrial world that was beginning to dominate the landscape, as they saw it, both physically and spiritually. We sometimes draw a dichotomy: manmade equals bad, natural equals good.
And, of course, I experience some of that myself. But, increasingly, as the dichotomy between physical and spiritual begins to disappear, I also become distrustful of the man vs. nature dichotomy.
I attempt to see the spiritual in the physical in all things. I am convinced that the physical is always the manifestation of the spirit, in all ways and in everything, and indeed, that you can not imagine, or conceive of, the spiritual without its physical manifestation. We have to look no further for the divine than our daily experience. God is all in all and in all. God is all that is, and all that ought to be.
And God is most especially God in man. (I know a Christ who makes it so.) So, it follows that I am challenged to look at man and all his works as natural. Oh, that does not mean that I do not still object to the power-lines crossing the view…but I am becoming aware that is disingenuous to do so while standing on the road that gives me access to the view in the first place, next to the car (or electric scooter as the case may be 🙂 that carried me there.
And I am not saying that the greed that is like a cancer in man (exactly and specifically like a cancer) does not threaten nature…I am just beginning to doubt that it is helpful to cast man and nature as enemies…to define man by this disease and deny our unity with nature, our natural state, our oneness with all that is.
Part of the charm we see in cyclist on the Bridle Path, riding down a man-made tunnel of leaves and light, on bicycles that are triumphs of modern technology, captured with a camera that a small computer with a lens…is that we glimpse how man and all his works might be integrated with nature, without harm, without disturbance or distortion of the spirit of all that is and all that ought to be.
Or that’s what I think anyway. Happy Sunday.