June is bustin’ out all over!
The sheep aren’t sleepin’ anymore!
All the rams that chase ewe-sheep
All determined there’ll be new sheep
and the ewe-sheep aren’t even keepin’ score!
I can never remember whether Rodgers or Hammerstein was the lyricist but whichever it was, he didn’t know much about June in Hong Kong. It is the wet season and when I checked the HK Observatory 7 day forecast that is about all it said: wet. And it was this morning. After two hours I abandoned ship as I could see no break in the clouds. In those 2 hours I may have managed about 40 minutes actually using the camera. And even then it had its raincoat on and I could have used a set of Elton John’s glasses with windscreen wipers. Perhaps not in the same size and colour though. I think perhaps I would need to adjust the diopter settings. Pretty much everything looked bed-raggled this morning.
The small and short-lived consolation was that when I did venture out from under the shelters the dragonflies seemed unconvinced and stayed where they were. All except the Pied skimmers, who continued to zip around as if their Duracells were over-charged. There were also a couple of butterflies I would have liked to photograph. One was definitely a Blue Baron, Euthalia phemius, and the other a ‘don’t know’. The Blue Baron is described as ‘difficult to get near’ in Paul Lau’s Butterflies of Hong Kong. I can confirm that. The dragonflies were slightly more cooperative.
Firstly the Blue Dasher, which failed to live up to its name, sitting on the lily bud about a foot further away than I wanted. Despite much cajoling it refused to move closer.
Brachydiplax chalybea flavovittata
It meant I could move around a little, trying always to find the best background.
The Common Flangetail on the other hand still flew frequently and fast but always returned to the same perch. Some dragonflies do that and the only issue I had was whether it would revert to its previous position or would opt for a different one. Sometimes it did, and sometimes it didn’t.
These are the two images I decided to keep:
Ictinogomphus pertinax
Ictinogomphus pertinax
The upper image I liked because the IP lifted its head slightly so we can see the facial markings and the second, which I would not normally keep as it is facing away from the camera, I liked because it showed well the venation of the wings and the dorsal markings. Plus of course the flange-tail itself. Sadly (in the photographic sense) both of these species are very common.
And finally, the rain did make the water lilies look quite nice. And just to prove it, here is my last frame of the day before I legged it back to the carpark.
Water Lily
Isn’t it odd that when you take 10, 15 or even 20 shots of something it is either the first or the last that proves to be the best.
Tomorrow I have a chores day and an early evening drive to pick up Mrs. H from the airport after her exhausting shopping expedition to Korea. From the reports I have been getting it seems to have rivaled an ascent of the Eiger Nordwand in demands on stamina and, I suspect, pocket. No wonder the KOSPI is up today. And as the forecast is for much heavier rain tomorrow, with a little Donner and Blitzen thrown in (and I don’t mean Santa’s rain-dear) I suspect waiting at Arrivals is a thoroughly good thing to do.
All downhill from here 
Reblogged this on James Maier Page.
Fantastic d’fly shots!
entertaining and instrucitve, as usual. very nice 🙂
Nice images considering the wet challenge. I agree especially with your point about how the first or last image in a series is often the best. For me it is usually the first. I figure it’s because we are drawn to a moment that we capture instinctually and then spend some time trying to better that moment and capture something more special. But the fleeting moment that caught us initially is often the most powerful and is gone just as quickly.