The Halloween Penant dragonfly

Over the last few days we have had some crazy weather push through
with heavy winds and lightning storms that seem to come out of no
where. They last for about an hour and then gone. As we returned from
a day out, we had a nice surprise of this Halloween Pennant dragonfly
that must have been either tired of trying to fight the winds or was
too wet to fly (or ready to die). Either way, he was sitting right on
the door nob as if waiting for me to invite him in (or her, didn't
check). I have seen these dragonflies hundreds of times before. They
stay mainly near ponds where they mate and can be found throughout the
year. What I found made him very interesting was the way the orange
color of the wings made for a nice filter effect when photographed.
The light weemed to add a nice glow to him. I am also very fascinated
with every intricate detail of their design. Always cool.

I only had him for about 10 minutes. I grabbed a D90 and 60mm micro
lens while using a SB-800 which was controlled using the Nikon
commander mode of the camera. I used a black foil to snoot the flash
to give a direct snoot effect to the light. He was placed on two
pieces of black foam core and that was it. I knew he was done when
after I said, "that's it. I'm done." He took off flying towards the
door. I opened the door and he was gone.

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