Photographs by Frank

31 July 2011

Robberfly with Prey

Filed under: Other Insects,The "New" Yard & Environs — Frank @ 12:24 PM

One never knows when opportunity will come knocking.

This morning, I was inside paying the bills and Joan was outside weeding and watering her flower bed. At about 10:15, I heard Joan call and given past experience, I came running camera in hand!

I surmised correctly! My wildlife-spotter-in-chief had discovered a robberfly with a bee! The insect took a couple of minutes after my arrival to settle down in a rhododendron right next to our deck and begin to eat.

Once it did, I could approach to the close focus distance of the ode rig and I began to work the angles in order to get a good (i.e. uncluttered) background. I took 94 frames in just over a half hour looking for variety in the background (via changes in angle and aperture) and in behavior.

Here are three images including another one those random events that occur in nature. The second bee in the last image could not have been in the area for more than 10 seconds; I have two frames (including this one) that include it. The first two images are cropped to about half of the original frame; the third image is about two-thirds of the original frame.

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Around the Yard

Filed under: Odontates,Other Insects,The "New" Yard & Environs — Tags: , , — Frank @ 12:00 PM

Yesterday morning, I spent a couple of hours roaming the yard with camera (rigged for odes)  in hand.

I was amazed at the variety of odes (and other insects) to be found. I captured images of ten different species including a twelve-spotted skimmer, a dragonfly that I had not seen before.

All-in-all a successful morning!

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29 July 2011

July Odes

Filed under: "Camp",Odontates — Tags: , , — Frank @ 12:00 PM

Between the recent heat wave and a hectic life, I have not done much photography (or blogging) in the past few weeks.

The first set of photos were taken the weekend of 16 and 17 July. I took a very hot and buggy hike at the McCabe Forest on Saturday. On Sunday, I took a kayak out and spent the afternoon at camp.

Just back in the woods, along the Contoocook River at McCabe Forest, there were many female ebony jewelwings feasting away on the abundant mosquitoes. I did not see a single male anywhere. Along the lake at camp there was quite a variety of odes with  variable dancers seemingly the most abundant.

Here are the photos:

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Yesterday evening Joan and I took a canoe ride over to camp. I was probably too late in the day for good ode watching but I did manage to find and photograph two different species of clubtails.

I was a little surprised at the lack of vesper bluets which, I think, were beginning to appear by late July in years past.  I guess that I’ll just have to go back again!

The frog (an immature bullfrog, I think) in the first photo was on the beach as we arrived.

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22 July 2011

Swamp Bats Baseball Redux

Filed under: Uncategorized — Frank @ 11:59 PM

I enjoyed the baseball game last week so much that I went back again on Tuesday.

I headed over to Keene early figuring that I would get some shots during batting practice. I arrived about 5:30, to find that it was country music night. There was a concert going on and any one with a cowboy hat on got into the game for free.

I, of course, was wearing my standard “photography hat” which looked cowboy enough to get me in for free! Well, it is a Stetson and I did buy it in Montana!!!

I took up my “usual” position on the third base side of the visitors (the Newport Gulls, on this occasion) dugout with the goal of getting photographs of the action other than the pitchers and batters… that is, the less predictable and therefore harder stuff… such as base running and fielding.

I was only partially successful. It is tough when you don’t really know where the best action will be… first base, second, infield, outfield? Much more practice is needed!  I’ll have to wait mostly until next season as the regular season ends August 1. However, post-season play is quite likely as the Swamp Bats are currently leading their division. So, maybe I can get to a few more games!

Anyway, here are the “keepers”:

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My position at the end of the visitors dugout was also good for getting nice portraits of the visiting team. Coaches and players would lean against the dugout, not more that three or four feet from me, and watch the action on the field; I got a lot of profiles!

And here they are:

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(A note to the players in these photographs… sorry but I have been unable to match faces with names!)

15 July 2011

Swamp Bats Baseball

Filed under: baseball — Frank @ 9:00 PM

I headed to Keene on Thursday evening to watch the Swamp Bats play the Old Orchard Beach Raging Tide in a New England Collegiate Baseball League game — of course I took my camera!

The price of admission was right (only four bucks), the evening was beautiful and the baseball was great! The home team won 6-4.

As you might expect, one can pretty much wander the ball park (Alumni Field at Keene High School) at a game like this. Thus, after a few false starts, I settled in kneeling on the ground (amid the players duffel bags) on the outfield side of the visitors dugout. I had the 70-300 mm lens attached to the camera; the long end is almost too much “reach” for a position this close to the action.

Here are the “keepers” from the evening:

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Note that all of these images are in black and white. I began processing these as color images but something about “Bat Boys #1” (the fourth image) said “black and white” to me. After a converted this image to black and white, I realized this classic look would be perfect for such a classic subject. Thus I re-processed the first few images and continued with the same look for the rest of the series.

Displaying the images in black and white also helps minimize distractions in the backgrounds which can be sort of  busy when the spectators are part of the background. Black and white also helps minimize the distracting  bright yellow cover atop the outfield fence

14 July 2011

Sunday Morning

Filed under: Odontates,The "New" Yard & Environs — Frank @ 12:13 PM

I spent last Sunday morning wandering the yard with the camera. I began, as usual, stalking dragonflies and got a couple of nice photos of “Sunday Morning Odes”:

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At some point, I noticed the brightly colored petunias that Joan has growing in some of the planters around the yard. Thus, I took the extension tube off of the odonate rig and allowed myself to be distracted by the petunias.

Then I remembered the bouquet of flowers (cut from their garden) that our neighbors had brought over with an invitation to chat the previous day. I brought those out to the picnic table to photograph using a Strobist approach (i.e. put the camera in manual mode and use the shutter speed to “dial in” the desired ambient exposure (i.e. the background); then use the aperture (and flash power) to get the proper exposure on the subject).

Here are the “Sunday Morning Florals”:

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The first two images are more-or-less straight photos. The remaining images were processed using the Topaz Adjust set of filters and certainly represent an “altered reality”. My intent (other than just having fun) with these  images was to emphasize the texture of the flowers rather than their extremely bright colors. Note that the sixth and seventh images are actually the same frame just processed differently.

Comments appreciated!

9 July 2011

Swamp Romp

Filed under: Odontates,Other Insects,The "New" Yard & Environs — Frank @ 6:00 PM

Yesterday was a cool gray (heavy overcast) day which usually means low activity for odonates. Nevertheless, I donned my green wellies, added a layer of woodsman’s cologne and  headed down to the beaver swamp behind the house about 3:30 PM.

When I arrived a spent some time at the edge of the woods watching both the small patch of open water and the large patch of wet grassy marsh without seeing any activity. Eventually, I spied a dragonfly patrolling the open water. Deciding to brave the swamp proper, I headed off into the grassed and sedges lying between me and the open water.

As I moved though the waist- to chest-high grasses, I stirred up all sorts of insects that must have been just “hanging out” conserving energy. There were at least three species of damselflies present. I also stirred up two teneral meadow hawks (I only got photos of one though).

Lesson learned… observation form a distance tells only a small part of the story; one needs to immerse  oneself in the environment to get the “complete” story.

There were also two different type of moths present —  a small orange one and an even smaller cream colored one — no photos of the latter as they pretty much stayed down near the ground where the tangle of vegetation makes it impossible to get a clear line of sight.

After photographing critters among the grasses, I finally arrived at the edge of the open water where I spent some time watching two or three dragonflies (all the same species I think, but exactly which one, I can not say!) patrolling and hunting. Not once did I see any of them perch so there was no possibility of photographs.

As the afternoon wore on, the ode activity diminished. It was about six o’clock when I called it quits.

So here are the “keepers”:

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The first image is one of those “accidents” where I pushed the shutter release just as the critter took off… most of the time I get a frame containing a wonderful study of a twig or blade of grass (which I promptly delete)! This time my timing luck was better. What do folks think? Is it interesting enough to keep?

8 July 2011

Ebony Jewelwings at Loveren’s Mill

Filed under: Nature Conservancy properties,Odontates — Tags: — Frank @ 6:00 PM

Yesterday (i.e. Thursday) afternoon I headed to Loveren’s Mill, a nearby Nature Conservancy property. In previous years I had found ebony jewelwings to be common along the river there and I was not disappointed on this trip. The numbers of individuals was not large but they were, by far, the most common species present. Interestingly, I saw only males.

I also noted an occasional dragonfly out cruising over the river but they were too far away and moving too fast to identify much less photograph. I was surprised by the lack of odes on my walk back to the cedar swamp. Often there are darners in the woods and other dragonflies along the road but I saw none this trip. I did see one small brown damselfly on the boardwalk that extends out in to the swamp but the photograph I got is uninteresting.

Around six, I headed back to the truck as the mosquitoes were beginning to get bothersome. Whether it was the hour or the fact that my “woodsman’s cologne” (i.e. ” bug dope”) was wearing off I can not say… most probably a combination of the two!

At the edge of the parking area I noticed two ebony jewelwings actively feeding on mosquitoes and spent some time photographing them. Of course, the mosquitoes were also actively feeding…on me!

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The First Week of July

Filed under: Odontates,Other Insects,wildflowers — Tags: , , , — Frank @ 12:00 PM

The first week of July saw photographic opportunities during an afternoon on Gregg Lake, a late afternoon kayak jaunt on a nearby beaver swamp and around the yard.

The most common, by far, odes on the Lake that afternoon were lancet clubtails. I also saw (but did not get photographs of) a couple of damselflies, including one variable dancer.

The beaver swamp was teeming with two species: frosted whitefaces and swamp spreadwings. The flowers were also found in the swamp.

The butterfly was very interested in nectaring on the flowers in Joan’s garden and kept returning despite my scaring it off a number of times.

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3 July 2011

A Hike to Willard Pond / Kennedy’s Emerald

Filed under: Uncategorized — Frank @ 11:59 AM

A couple of weeks ago Joan and I discovered a new (to us anyway) route from our house to Willard Pond — all trails, no bushwacking — takes all of the challenge out of it! The hike is a nice 5-6 mile (roughly estimated) loop and includes the top of Goodhue Hill as an additional highlight (in addition to Willard Pond itself).

On our first trip along this route we encountered a scarlet tanager in the woods as we approached Willard Pond and a juvenile beaver which swam within inches of  our feet as we sat on the shore of the pond. (I did not have my camera along on this foray, so no photos… the sound of the camera would have most definitely scared the beaver into a dive anyway.)

Last Tuesday, we took some friends who were visiting on this hike. As we were walking though the woods we encountered a number of red efts (although not nearly as many as we saw on our first excursion) and a couple of wood frogs.

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The zoological highlight though was a dragonfly, specifically a female Kennedy’s Emerald. This was a first for both me as well as my friend Kevin (who has much more experience with, as well as a professional interest, in odonates). According to my reading this is a fairly rare species (it is listed as endangered in MA; I’m not  sure about NH) and that southern NH may be near the southern limit of its range.

We first noticed this individual struggling in the water of the Mill Pond near Willard Pond (see the first photo below) and spent some time debating if it was in trouble or it it was ovipositing. After deciding the former, Kevin rescued the critter with a stick and placed her on a nearby maple branch. I was able to get some photos with my macro lens since she wasn’t going anywhere until her wings dried out.

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