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| [Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note |
I was leaving work one afternoon when I saw this dragonfly perched on my car's antenna, absolutely still. It was so motionless, in fact, that I thought it was dead. Naturally, I decided to take a picture of it. I snapped a couple of shots from about eight feet away, with a 200 mm zoom, then moved closer -- and it was gone. It had flown away. I examined the antenna, and it had a sticky residue all over the tip, something like spider web silk. I guess it was trying to build an egg nest, but why it was attracted to my antenna, I haven't a clue.
I got in my car and started to leave, and the dragonfly reappeared. I got out and (as slowly as possible) re-approached the dragonfly, snapping a few shots each time I came a foot closer. Eventually, I was within three feet and had shot nearly a hundred images, almost all at eye level (6' 1"). If I leaned to the left (toward the car), the background was green (from the grassy lawn and trees). If I leaned to the right, the background was mostly red and tan brick (from Duncan Hall, the building I work in at Rice). I started lowering my angle until I had clouds and sky behind the dragonfly (continuing to snap shots the whole time, of course). Voila! The sunlight behind the clouds was letting me see through the dragonfly's wings. The dark area at the bottom of the image is the third floor of Duncan Hall. I snapped about twenty more shots, until I got close enough that it flew away again.
This time it didn't return before I got my car started, so I left. The gooey stuff was very hard to get off. I left it on after trying to clean it. About two weeks later, another (smaller) dragonfly was sitting on my antenna after work. I snapped a few shots of it, but this one was more skittish, and kept flying away as soon as I got close. It didn't return on subsequent days.
I cropped the image a little, adjusted the levels, and sharpened it before resizing. |
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