A Cautious Widow Skimmer

By Jim | Published July 17, 2017




While touring a wonderful butterfly garden near Paola, Kansas last week, I found a somewhat wary Widow Skimmer (Libellula luctuosa) dragonfly, “hiding” behind a stem on the plant he was perched in: Moving slowly, I was able to move to my right to get an image from a slightly different angle: A short time later, […]

Posted in 2017, Blog, Insect Photography, Nature Photography | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Leave a comment

Early Morning Dragonflies

By Jim | Published September 20, 2016




During my last kayak outing, I captured several dragonflies in the early morning, as they rested along the bank of the lake: Photographic Equipment Used: Canon 7D Mark 2 body Canon 100-400mm, f/4.5-5.6 IS lens Handheld from the kayak, with IS “On” ISO 500 Aperture f/5.6 Shutter 1/125 sec. to 1/800 sec.    

Posted in 2016, Blog, Insect Photography, Nature Photography, Photography from a kayak | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Leave a comment

Enter the Dragon’s Lair, Part 3

By Jim | Published June 21, 2016




In Part 3 of this mini-series, I’m featuring a Banded Pennant dragonfly that was photographed last week at a local Missouri Conservation Area: Photographic Equipment Used: Canon 7D Mark 2 body Canon EF 100-400mm, f/4.5 to f/5.6 IS lens Handheld, with IS “On” ISO 500 Aperture f/8 Shutter 1/200 sec. to 1/250 sec.    

Posted in 2016, Blog, Insect Photography, Nature Photography | Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Leave a comment

Enter the Dragon’s Lair, Part 2

By Jim | Published June 20, 2016




In part 2 of this mini-series, I’m featuring some of the many Eastern Amberwings dragonflies that I found at a local Missouri Conservation Area last week. These are some of my favorite dragonflies. They are such a beautiful color, although sometimes a bit more difficult to find due to the transparent amber coloration of the […]

Posted in 2016, Blog, Insect Photography, Nature Photography | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Leave a comment

Enter the Dragon’s Lair, Part 1

By Jim | Published June 16, 2016




Last week while photographing wildflowers, I noticed an awful lot of dragonflies now active. So Tuesday morning I decided to exchange my macro lens for my favorite wildlife lens, the Canon 100-400mm, f/4.5-f/5.6 IS lens and go “dragon hunting”. I was not disappointed … several species were observed and photographed. Today’s post features one of […]

Posted in 2016, Blog, Insect Photography, Nature Photography | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
1 Comment

A Lightweight on a Heavyweight

By Jim | Published December 16, 2015




Came upon this image while looking for blog material this morning. While photographing the dragonflies that I featured over the past few posts, I also came upon this Halloween Penant that was resting atop an Ironweed wildflower: I always enjoy finding/photographing dragonflies and butterflies in the meadow, especially when they are on/around colorful wildflowers. Photographic […]

Posted in 2012, 2015, Blog, Insect Photography, Macro Photography, Nature Photography, Wildflowers | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Leave a comment

Eastern Pondhawk Dragonfly Males

By Jim | Published December 15, 2015




While photographing the Halloween Penant dragonflies, I also came upon some male Eastern Pondhawk dragonflies. Interestingly, the Eastern Pondhawks are all green with black markings in the immature stage. As they mature, the males begin turning blue, from the rear to the front, until they are all blue. The females, however, remain green. Here are […]

Posted in 2012, Blog, Insect Photography, Macro Photography, Nature Photography | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
1 Comment

Halloween Penant Dragonflies

By Jim | Published December 14, 2015




Today’s post contains some images I captured in 2012 and never published. Wandering one of the local Missouri Conservation Areas, a lot of Halloween Penant dragonflies were resting on various prairie grasses. The penant dragonflies are in the same family as the skimmer dragonflies. Their name “penant” comes from their typical posture of perching at, […]

Posted in 2015, Blog, Insect Photography, Macro Photography, Nature Photography | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Leave a comment

Happy Halloween!

By Jim | Published October 31, 2015




Happy Halloween everyone! Today’s post was posted on Halloween in 2012. Wishing everyone a Boo-tiful weekend! On this Halloween day, I’m featuring some Boo-tiful creatures from a local Missouri prairie that I captured one October morning in the fall of 2010. When fall comes to the prairie, there often are many magnificent spider webs that […]

Posted in 2015, Blog, Insect Photography, Landscape Photography, Macro Photography, Nature Photography | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Leave a comment

A Frosted Memory!

By Jim | Published October 17, 2015




Temperatures this morning are expected in the 30’s and there are “frost warnings” out for rural areas not far from my rural Missouri home. With these warnings in place, I vividly recall a similar situation a few years ago, when I hiked a frosted prairie and found my little friend, “Frosty”: When I first came […]

Posted in 2015, Blog, Insect Photography, Macro Photography, Nature Photography | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Leave a comment