Flying Dragon

Anyone with a little bit of patience and a telephoto lens can get a fine picture of a resting dragonfly, but when the odonates take to the air, well, therein lies madness... for the photographer. There are, however, a few species that have a tendency to hover, sometimes for several seconds. If your hands are steady and your auto-focus rapid, about one time out of ten, or twenty, or... more, you'll be able to lock on to your quarry and stop a dragonfly in mid-flight. This member of the Baskettail clan—perhaps a Common, a Spiny, or a Beaverpond; it's all but impossible to tell them apart unless you have the specimen in your hand—was wonderfully cooperative, flying in place about five feet away and for long enough to allow my camera to home in on its features. I got excited when I saw those two spots on the thorax and thought I'd actually captured a giveaway field mark. It's diagnostic, to be sure, but for all three of the Baskettail species I mentioned earlier. All I can say for certain is that it's an Epitheca—and that I was very happy with the shot.