Monthly Archives: July 2020
Spangled among the flowers
This is a female Spangled Skimmer dragonfly showing to good advantage among the meadow flowers. 🙂 Sometimes nature photography is as much about the “setting” as it is the creature. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. Taken at the Forever Wild Preserve in Kennebunk, Maine.
Violet! Variable Dancer, damselfly
This is an embarrassingly simple photograph. Just a snap really, of an interesting damselfly: The Variable Dancer. Dancers are delicate damsels, with a wavering, uncertain flight, that, if it reminds me of dance at all, reminds of little girls (or boys) spinning aimlessly on a grassy lawn. But you have to admire the color on this one! They are, as the name implies, variable, so they are not all this purple, but when they are purple, they are very purple. Way to go dancer! I found the one in sand along the shore of Day Brook Pond on the Kennebunk Plains Nature Conservancy. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Wood Lily (again)
One Wood Lily leads to another 🙂 Such lovely flowers. I wait for them to bloom every year. They are not with us many weeks and then they are gone for another year. Kennebunk Plains Nature Conservancy, Kennebunk, Maine. Sony Rx10iv at about 420mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Photobomb :) Turtle and Dragonfly
Just for fun. I always take a short burst of photos at about 4 frames per second…just to make sure I get the shot. I saw this happen through the viewfinder, but did not know if I actually got it until I got the sequence up on the tablet at home. 🙂 The turtle, a smallish Painted Turtle, was sunning itself high above the water (high for a turtle) in Day Brook Pond. The turtles at Day Brook are among the most skittish I know of, perhaps because so many people take their dogs there to swim, so I was surprised when this turtle did not immediately dive off and back into the water when I approached. I am, of course, happy that it did not. (The Dragonfly, though not quite in focus, appears to the a Chalk-fronted Corporal.) Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Wood Lily!
I rode my ebike out to the Kennebunk Plains yesterday looking for dragonflies, and was surprised to find the the Wood Lilies in full bloom. This feels early for Wood Lily. I think of them in full bloom in mid to late July…but there they were. Much of the area where they grow was included in the prescribed burn of last September, and it looks like we will not have lilies this year in those areas, but along the edge in the deeper brush that did not burn, they are tall already. The light was lovely yesterday afternoon and showed the lilies to best advantage. Sony Rx10iv at 480mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Ebony Jewelwing
Ebony Jewelwing, Emmon’s Preserve, Kennebunkport, Maine — As it happens I am better acquainted with ebony, the wood, than most. I apprenticed for six months with a violin bow maker, and spent most of my time making “frogs”…the part of the bow at the end where you grip that holds the hair and moves to adjust the tension of the bow. The frog is made of ebony. So when I tell you that the wings of the Ebony Jewelwing have a texture very close to real ebony, you can believe me. Both have the subtle “grain” of just lighter streaks…which is hard to capture in a photo. It took some fancy luminance masking in Polarr to bring up the texture in the wings in this photo, without throwing the rest of the exposure all out of wack. No credit to me. Polarr makes it easy. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Simple Gifts: Song Sparrow
I was hunting for dragonflies at Emmon’s Preserve in Kennebunkport, Maine, when this Song Sparrow popped up beside me, just above eye-level and practically within arms reach. It proceeded to chitter at me. It did not burst into full song…but it definitely wanted my attention, so I gave it. We had a little face off over the next few moments. It changed perches but still seemed to regard me with some interest. Not sure what was going on there, but it was interesting. I am not about to ignore simple gifts…and this song sparrow so close was just that! Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Spangled Skimmer: Forth of July Dragonfly
Spangled Skimmer, Forever Wild Preserve, Kennebunk, Maine — I like dragonflies (you might have noticed). They are amazing creatures from a creative design and mechanics point of view, and often aesthetically amazing as well. This skimmer is nothing special to look at while perched, but in flight, those white spots on the wings make a dance like a child swinging a sparkler on the Forth of July. A thing of beauty. And fitting for the day. 🙂 This is not your usual id portrait shot, but I find the pose interesting and the details of face and the plant as well. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Six-spotted Tiger Beetle
Of all the insects in the world, I like the green, shiny ones the best! There, I have said it. It makes no sense, but I can not deny it. I like green shiny insects! I found these Six-spotted Tiger Beetles hunting on the rocks along the trail at the Forever Wild Preserve in Kennebunk, Maine, while I was out hunting for dragonflies myself. (We shared a hunter’s moment. 🙂 ) From an insect’s point of view, these are indeed tigers, with fearsome jaws. They prey on any other insect they can catch. I read on wiki that even their larva pop up out of the ground like jack-in-the-boxes to capture passing prey. Fierce indeed. And so pretty, so shiny, so green! Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. (Note that one of these has only 4 spots…but that is, again, according to wiki, not all that uncommon.)
Another immigrant: Essex Skipper
Essex Skipper (European Skipper), Forever Wild Preserve, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — I am apparently more of a chauvinist than I am aware of…whenever I look up a species that I have photographed and find that it is a non-native species, I am slightly disappointed. This is such a case. I photographed this little skipper on the trail at the Forever Wild Preserve, and had to look it up. It is, according to the Leps artificial intelligence engine, and subsequent research, the Essex Skipper. The Essex Skipper, sometimes called the European Skipper here, was accidentally introduced in Ontario, Canada in 1910, and is now the most common skipper in New England. I have to remind myself that I am a child of immigrants myself before I am ready to make room for the Essex Sipper in the American pantheon…but then I guess that is just human nature. All God’s creatures, great and small. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.