the holy grail

I don’t use the word hero except in rare cases.  Kurt Mead isn’t exactly a hero, but I do admire his encyclopedic knowledge of odes.

Epicordulia princeps, a Prince Baskettail

I took some pictures last week.  And by some, I mean I took over 500.  That’s what it takes to capture some fast-moving Baskettail in flight.  Out of 500, I think about 6 were worth anything, a success ratio of 1.2%.

Putting that into perspective, I would be batting .012 if I were a major league baseball player.  The lowest batting average of any MLB in history was Ron Deer at .179.  That said, Rob Deer hit a game-tying home run to give the Milwaukee Brewers a 12-game winning streak at the start of the 1987 season.

Which means that even poor batters hit a home run now and again.

Epitheca cynosura (Common Baskettail)

Kurt commented on one of my pictures I posted on the web.  I quote:

The Holy Grail of the Odonate photography world…flight shots. Nice work…BTW, I have never gotten a successful flight shot, but I am over 40 and I can embrace my limitations. I’m OK with that…

My guess is that Kurt has never shot 500 pictures to get those pictures.  The good news for all of us is that his still shots are wonderful, as is his book, one that stays with me whenever I venture out to shoot pics.  And his sense of humor comes through in the book too.

Another E. princeps

I spent a good hour on the back lawn at the shop holding down the shutter and manually focusing a range so that I could bracket the focus, knowing that only a few would end up sharp at all, and knowing there would be a range of quality in those few that were viewable.   I think it was worth it.  The venerable Nikon 80-200 ED worked great.  It’s a light bucket.

I like the shots where I feel like I’m at an airshow, only quieter. The Baskettails didn’t disappoint. There were dozens of them, but two or three in particular seemed to like hanging around me, which made it even harder to shoot them.  Framing up a dragonfly three feet from you is like shooting at a skeet three feet from your shotgun.

A mating pair of Tramea lacerata (Black Saddlebags)

Not all were Baskettails…this pair of T. lacerata are Libellulidae (Skimmers) were mating just below me.  Since they’re relatively large odes, it was hard to miss them in my peripheral vision.  A pair of them stood out like a small bird, and they were kind enough to share with me their little liaison and hovered for a few seconds.

I’m not sure how many insects have retractable landing gear.  I see bees zooming around, their legs hanging down in the breeze, and given the shape of a bumblebee, I don’t think aerodynamics are its main concern.  Hunters need speed, agility, and efficiency.  Plants don’t run away, so you can be more rotund and the flowers won’t mind a bit.  Wasps don’t suck their legs up like this E. princeps, at least not the ones I’ve seen.  They have venom, so I guess that would be an evolutionary advantage.

And yet, I don’t give a fig for vespids, especially after a bald-faced hornet (Dolichovespula maculata) attacked me (totally unprovoked) in the Boundary Waters last summer.  A mean little bastard, he was.  Nailed me 6 times on top of my head.  Yeah, yeah.  If I had hair that wouldn’t have happened. I think he was jealous.

I guess the best description of odonates is that they’re elegant. They’re graceful, but at the same time, their acrobatics put any pilot and airplane to shame.

Respectfully submitted,

Canoelover