Blue-fronted Dancer damselfly

A Blue-fronted Dancer damselfly (Argia apicalis) was spotted during a photowalk with Michael Powell near Mulligan Pond at Jackson Miles Abbott Wetland Refuge (JMAWR), Fairfax County, Virginia USA.

18 AUG 2020 | JMAWR | Blue-fronted Dancer (Argia apicalis)

A. apicalis has “a blue form female and a brown form female.” Since neither the hamules nor terminal appendages can be seen clearly in the preceding photo, I’m unsure whether this individual is male or female.

Post Update

Michael Ready, good friend and fellow member of the Dragonfly Society of the Americas, shared the following comment via e-mail.

That’s an outstanding picture of a Blue-fronted Dancer. You state you are unsure of the individual’s gender. I am confident that it is a male. According to my field guides (Lam and Paulson), the blue-form female lacks the blue eyes and blue S8-10 that are apparent in your picture. Source Credit: Michael Ready.

Thanks for the kind words and helpful information, Michael! As it turns out, the field marks that you described are shown clearly in one of my blog posts: Blue-fronted Dancers (male, female), especially this photo.

Copyright © 2020 Walter Sanford. All rights reserved.

Great Blue Skimmer (mature male)

A Great Blue Skimmer dragonfly (Libellula vibrans) was spotted during a photowalk with Michael Powell around Mulligan Pond at Jackson Miles Abbott Wetland Refuge (JMAWR) in Fairfax County, Virginia USA.

This individual is a mature male, as indicated by his slightly tattered wings, blue coloration, and terminal appendages.

18 AUG 2020 | JMAWR | Great Blue Skimmer (mature male)

This male has mated many times, as indicated by the scratches on his abdomen.

Males that have mated often have marks on their abdomen where the female legs have scratched them. This is especially obvious in species in which males develop pruinosity, as the pruinosity on the mid-abdomen is scratched off, and the signs are visible at some distance. Source Credit: Paulson, Dennis (2011-12-19). Dragonflies and Damselflies of the East (Princeton Field Guides) (Kindle Locations 390-392). Princeton University Press. Kindle Edition.

Tech Tips

The preceding photo is full-frame (4,000 x 3,000 pixels), that is, uncropped.

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ300 is one of two superzoom bridge cameras that I use as my “go to” rigs for photowalking. The minimum focusing distance in AF Macro mode is 1 m (3.3 feet) at maximum telephoto (600 mm, 35mm equivalent). My usual practice is to set the camera lens for maximum telephoto and move as close as possible to the minimum focusing distance, resulting in maximum magnification of the subject. That’s how I shot the photo shown above.

It’s worth noting the minimum focusing distance is 2 m (6.6 feet) at maximum telephoto when the camera IS NOT set for AF Macro mode. If your goal is to get as close as possible to the subject in order to fill the photo frame, then AF Macro mode is the way to go.

Copyright © 2020 Walter Sanford. All rights reserved.

Russet-tipped Clubtail dragonfly (male)

A Russet-tipped Clubtail dragonfly (Stylurus plagiatus) was spotted by Michael Powell during a photowalk around Mulligan Pond at Jackson Miles Abbott Wetland Refuge (JMAWR) in Fairfax County, Virginia USA. This individual is a male, as indicated by his terminal appendages.

18 AUG 2020 | JMAWR | Russet-tipped Clubtail (male)

I was able to shoot one and only one photo of the Russet-tipped Clubtail before it was spooked by a male Slaty Skimmer dragonfly (Libellula incesta) — the clubtail flew away (never to return) while the skimmer landed on a nearby perch.

Swift Setwing (Dythemis velox) and Russet-tipped Clubtail were our two target species for the trip to JMAWR. Seeing Swift Setwing was a relatively sure thing; Russet-tipped, less so. It would have been nice to get a longer look at this handsome clubtail, but hey, I’m happy to have seen/photo’d this somewhat uncommon species however briefly!

Related Resource: Odonart© [one of several Swift Setwing spotted on the same day at JMAWR]

Copyright © 2020 Walter Sanford. All rights reserved.

Odonart©

18 AUG 2020 | JMAWR | Swift Setwing (male)

The Odonart© Exhibit is located in one wing of the ARThropod Gallery. (See what I did there?) My Odonart© Portfolio is featured in the exhibit.

The Backstory

A Swift Setwing dragonfly (Dythemis velox) was spotted during a photowalk with Michael Powell around Mulligan Pond at Jackson Miles Abbott Wetland Refuge (JMAWR) in Fairfax County. Virginia USA. This individual is a male, as indicated by his terminal appendages.

The Dragonflies of Northern Virginia Calendar of Flight Periods by Kevin Munroe, former manager at Huntley Meadows Park, doesn’t include Swift Setwing because the species was unknown to occur in Northern Virginia before it was discovered on 24 June 2016 in Fairfax County by my good friend Michael Powell. Years later, we’re still gathering data for this relative newcomer to the region.

Copyright © 2020 Walter Sanford. All rights reserved.

We have a history

An Eastern Pondhawk dragonfly (Erythemis simplicicollis) was spotted during a photowalk with Michael Powell near Mulligan Pond at Jackson Miles Abbott Wetland Refuge (JMAWR) in Fairfax County, Virginia USA.

This individual is a female, as indicated by her coloration and terminal appendages. Eastern Pondhawk, especially female E. simplicicollis, are voracious predators.

18 AUG 2020 | JMAWR | Eastern Pondhawk (female)

Regular readers of my blog know I love me some head-tilts, as shown in the preceding photo.

18 AUG 2020 | JMAWR | Eastern Pondhawk (female)

The Backstory

As the title of this blog post suggests, Eastern Pondhawk and I have a history — a negative history. A cohort of Southern Spreadwing damselflies (Lestes australis) was observed for a two-week period during early May 2015 at a vernal pool in the forest at Huntley Meadows Park.

The sudden disappearance of the damselfly cohort seemed to coincide with a population explosion of Eastern Pondhawk in mid-May. After years of heavy predation by Eastern Pondhawk, Southern Spreadwing disappeared completely from the vernal pool.

Related Resource: A Southern Fortnight – Part 1-7.

Copyright © 2020 Walter Sanford. All rights reserved.

I’m black in the saddle again.

Like the Singing Cowboy Gene Autry sang, I’m black in the saddle again. OK, maybe more like blue-black — either way I’m back baby!

18 AUG 2020 | JMAWR | Slaty Skimmer (male)

The preceding photo shows a Slaty Skimmer dragonfly (Libellula incesta) that was spotted during a photowalk with Michael Powell near Mulligan Pond at Jackson Miles Abbott Wetland Refuge (JMAWR) in Fairfax County, Virginia USA. This individual is a mature male, as indicated by his coloration and terminal appendages.

This is the second photo I shot at the outset of the photowalk — the first photo was a little too dark because the external flash power ratio was a little too low. Most external flash units work with most cameras as long as the flash is set for Manual mode. Some trial and error is necessary to get the proper exposure. 1/16 power is a good starting point — that way the best power ratio is usually no more than two- to three stops away.

Copyright © 2020 Walter Sanford. All rights reserved.

More experimentation with tethered shooting

Oh no! I have become the blogger who cried wolf. Yes, I’m guilty of over-promising and under-delivering. I promise to do better. Oops, I did it again! (Queue Britney Spears…)

Why tethered shooting?

In case you’re wondering what piqued my interest in tethered shooting, I was bored. I had figured out all there is to know about non-tethered shooting so I needed a new challenge. Not!

Tethered shooting enables me to quickly check composition, exposure, and focus, to name a few advantages of tethered versus non-tethered shooting — on a larger screen than the LCD on the back of my cameras.

Bear in mind, I don’t want to edit the photo files using my laptop computer (Apple 11″ MacBook Air) — I prefer to use my desktop computer (Apple 24″ iMac) for photo editing.

Latest testing

The following photos were taken by tethering my Fujifilm X-T3 digital camera to an Apple 11″ MacBook Air computer, via a TetherTools USB cable. FUJIFILM Tether Shooting Plug-in PRO was used to save JPG files to a folder on the desktop of my MacBook Air; in turn, the JPG images were displayed in Adobe Lightroom. Both JPG and RAF files were saved to one of two memory cards in the X-T3.

27 May 2017 | Riverbend Park | Swift River Cruiser (exuvia)

Notice the difference in way these two photos were lighted. Both shots were taken using a single off-camera flash. The position of the flash resulted in more- or less dramatic light. Each shot shows something better than the other, so I was unable to choose a clear favorite. What’s your preference?

27 May 2017 | Riverbend Park | Swift River Cruiser (exuvia)

Tips and Tricks

Oh yeah, the tips and tricks I have been promising are still in the pipeline. I made some screen grabs today to illustrate the process of tethered shooting. Turns out I overlooked a critical setting so all of the graphics are useless. Doh! Can you say “Do over”?

Copyright © 2020 Walter Sanford. All rights reserved.

As promised…

A rare weekend blog post

The following photo was taken by tethering my Fujifilm X-T3 digital camera to an Apple 11″ MacBook Air computer, via a TetherTools USB cable. Fujifilm X Aquire (free) was used to save JPG files to a folder on the desktop of my MacBook Air; both JPG and RAF files were saved to one of two memory cards in the X-T3.

Apple “Preview” was used to view the JPG files saved to my MacBook Air. Looking at larger versions of the photos than can be seen on the X-T3 LCD enabled me to position the exuvia exactly as I wanted.

Notice the left eye is overexposed slightly (as well as the farthest tip of the left middle leg), probably caused by positioning the subject too close to the white background. Hey, it’s been a while since I did much studio macro photography — I need to play myself into game shape!

More details, including some of the tips and tricks I promised, will be provided in my regularly-scheduled blog post on Monday, 10 August 2020. Please stay tuned!

27 May 2017 | Riverbend Park | Swift River Cruiser (exuvia)

The Backstory

A Swift River Cruiser dragonfly (Macromia illinoiensis) exuvia was collected on 27 May 2017 along the Potomac River at Riverbend Park in Fairfax County, Virginia USA. This individual is a female.

Copyright © 2020 Walter Sanford. All rights reserved.

Sanford M.I.A.

Regular readers of my blog might be worried that I fell into a tethered shooting black hole. I did. Fortunately I was able to use the tether to pull myself to safety. Whew, that was a close one!

But seriously folks, I’ve been busy checking and double-checking settings so I’m not guilty of spreading misinformation. Promise to publish a rare weekend post filled with lots of tethered shooting tips and tricks that will make the wait worthwhile.

First foray into tethered shooting

My first foray into tethered shooting occurred on 01 August 2020. Although I felt like I had no idea what I was doing, I was able to successfully connect my Fujifilm X-T3 digital camera to an Apple 11″ MacBook Air computer, via a TetherTools USB cable. The screen on my laptop shows the display for the FUJIFILM Tether Shooting Plug-in PRO (Mac) for Adobe Lightroom.

Screen display for 11″ MacBook Air.

I will backfill this post with more details about the hardware and software used to capture the following image, taken a few days after “first light.” In the meantime, I’m SO LATE in publishing my blog post for Wednesday I just want to put something out there STAT. Please revisit this post at a later time to read the updated version.

27 May 2017 | Riverbend Park | Swift River Cruiser (exuvia)

A Swift River Cruiser dragonfly (Macromia illinoiensis) exuvia was collected on 27 May 2017 along the Potomac River at Riverbend Park in Fairfax County, Virginia USA. This individual is a female. Notice the prominent horn on the head, a key field mark for exuviae from Family Macromiidae (Cruisers).

Ignore the bad background and quick-and-dirty lighting — this photo isn’t so much about making a good macro photo as it is the process used to make it. More later…I promise!

Copyright © 2020 Walter Sanford. All rights reserved.