Mr & Mrs Dragon

Huge response to the mosquito blip of yesterday, I certainly was not expecting that! It hit 100 stars and spotlight in just a few short hours. I guess I did build it up a tad with all my 'mozzy blip failure' stories, but I just wanted to let y'all know what I was up to. Thank you all so much for all the stars, hearts and marvelous comments on this trying blip, you have made it well worth the effort.

Deb (DBIFulco) suggested that I should have a go at photographic competitions. There are not that many around that suit my particular niche but I decided to have a go. Three of the five images that I submitted for the 'I love wildlife' comp have gotten past the first cut, so I am well psyched up about that. All three have been on blip, yellow carpenter bee, otter and jeweled dragon, all from my August collection.

Started shooting at 07:40 for an hour session. I had planned on finding a follow up mosquito blip to go with yesterday's but there was a fair breeze blowing this morning, unusual for Indonesia. In fifteen years I cannot recall a wind strong enough to trouble a well worn umbrella. Occasionally a wind will pick up ahead of a storm, but nothing too troubling. The breeze was enough to move the vegetation around, preventing any fine macro work though.

I picked up a few spider shots, a wasp and a bee shot, also a frog played nice for me today, apart from when I tried to reposition him and he jumped on my face and gave me quite a start!

But the first opportunity was a solid wing red dragon, which I got down onto my elbows for. After a few shots it flew away, but was immediately replaced by a similar brown. I started to thing that this looked like the female and was thinking that this might make a good combo image. A few seconds later, the male returned and confirmed my suspicions by jumping on the female.

The passion only lasted a few seconds though and I was only able to get off one shot. The male landed on the twig in front of the female and the pair allowed me to collect about twenty shots, even forgiving me for shuffling around, trying to at least get both heads in the focal plane. The wings are not bad either and an easy choice for blip. You've seen dragon mating shots, so I thought I would give you a break.

Dave