photoartflightEastern Pondhawks At Blackwater NWR
Posted on July 21, 2022
I am still going through images from our trip to the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge in Cambridge Maryland. I had posted some of the bird images I had taken but I wanted to switch and post some Dragonfly images from the trip. All images were taken with a Canon 300mm lens with a 1.4x Teleconverter on a Canon 7D. The Featured Image is a Female Eastern Pondhawk.
Eastern Pondhawks
Posted on August 20, 2020
We went to Davidsons Mill Pond Park to take a walk and look for photo subjects. I was looking mostly for dragonflies, but found a few other photo subjects also in their fields of wildflowers and gardens. The gardens were locked because of Covid 19, but you could photograph through their fencing. Here are images I photographed of a male & female Eastern Pondhawk. I was using an Olympus OMD-1 with a Panasonic 100-300mm lens because I did not want to lug around my usual heavier gear. All the images here were photographed @ 300mm. 
Dragonfly Wing Damage
Posted on July 14, 2020
It is starting to be the time of year when dragonflies start to show signs of wear & tear on their wings. It seems they must lead a rough life from the looks of wear on some of them. The featured image is a male Slaty Skimmer Dragonfly.
Blue Dasher, 300mm, 2x teleconverter, (600mm) 2 images – focus stacked
Blue Dasher, 300mm, 2x teleconverter, (600mm) 5 images focus stacked
Eastern Pondhawk Male – (600mm) 3 images focus stacked
Blue Dasher, (960mm) Multi-image stack
Blue Dasher, (600mm) multi-image focus stack
2 Male Spangled Skimmers, (600mm) 2 image focus stack
Recent Dragonfly Images
Posted on September 1, 2019
Here are a few images of Dragonflies and a Damselfly from a few local parks in our area. Most were shot with a close focusing 300mm f/4 lens with either extension tubes to get closer or 1.4X or 2X teleconverter. A few I used a Canon 400mm f/4 DO with Extension tubes and 1.4X teleconverter. The featured image is a female Eastern Pondhawk that was quite cooperative for extreme closeups. Image taken with Canon 7D, handheld, 300mm @ f/8, 1/1000 sec, ISO 400.
Blue Dasher extreme closeup – 2 image focus stack Canon 7D, Canon 300mm f/4 IS, 1.4X teleconverter, w/extension tubes
Blue Dasher extreme closeup – 2 image focus stack Canon 7D, Canon 300mm f/4 IS, 1.4X teleconverter, w/extension tubes (f/11, 1/200 sec, ISO 400)
Damselfly – multi image stack, 400mm f/4 DO with extension tubes, f/8, 1/50 sec, 1600 ISO, camera on tripod
Female Eastern Pondhawk- f/11, 1/320 sec, 300mm f/4 w/ 1.4X teleconverter
Slaty Blue Dragonfly, f/11, 1/160 sec, +1/3 exp. comp, 300mm w/ 2X teleconverter, Single image, flew off before focus stacking images
Slaty Blue Dragonfly, f/10, 1/320 sec, 300mm w/1.4X teleconverter, effective 420mm
Dragonflies From Davidson’s Mill Pond Park
Posted on June 30, 2019
We went to a local park to look for Dragonflies or other investing subjects to photograph. It seems like it is a slow start for dragonflies at this local park compared to other years. But we did manage to photograph a few different types. It was still fun to see what we could find.
Blue Dasher – male
Eastern Pondhawk – Female
Eastern Pondhawk- Male
Common Whitetail- Male
Slaty Skimmer – Male
Eastern Pondhawk Dragonfly
Posted on August 27, 2018
Eastern Pondhawks are one of my favorite dragonflies to photograph. Love the green colors of the immature males and the mature females which make them really stand out. You often see the males warming on the ground early in the morning.
Front Side View
More of a Side / Rear View
A wider view similar to featured image
Eastern Pondhawk Dragonfly
Posted on July 16, 2017
Closeup image of an Eastern Pondhawk Dragonfly. It almost seems like it is smiling at you. It seems many of the dragonflies at this location are showing signs of “wear & tear” on their wings already. It seems early in the season for that. Usually you see this in late Summer. If you stay in an area for a while it seems like they get used to you and are not as skiddish or wary of you so you can get closer.
Eastern Pondhawk at a distance. Three shot focus stacked image.
Eastern Pondhawk Dragonfly
Posted on September 19, 2016
We went to a local park looking for dragonflies. We found quite a few buzzing around. But most were quite far out of in the lilies. I setup with a 400mm lens with extension tubes and a 1.4X teleconverter to get closer to some that came closer along the shoreline. I really liked the coloring of the Easter Pondhawk. This one came quite close and stayed a while posing for me.
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