Not wanting to venture far from home on a warm July afternoon, I picked up my camera and went looking for something interesting to photograph in my back yard. There were no flying monkeys, but a much smaller beast flitting above my pond caught my eye. The implied challenge was accepted. With a little patience, I had my photographs about an hour later.

Flame Skimmer [Firecracker Skimmer] (Libellula saturata)

This winged assassin was picking off small insects for mid-afternoon snacks during overflights of the pond, interspersed with rest periods on its favorite perch. These photos were taken with a macro lens at a distance of a few inches while the subject struck a series of picturesque poses for the camera.

The next afternoon, I noticed a Western Tiger Swallowtail sampling nectar from a large butterfly-bush (Papilio rutulus) not far from the pond. I couldn't resist another challenge.

Western Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio rutulus)

To put it politely, the swallowtail was less skilled at posing for photographs than the skimmer. These photos were selected from hundreds of others in which the subject was partly obscured by greenery or, in not a few cases, entirely absent. Patience eventually won out, and I declared a hard-won victory.

Dorothy Was Right - There’s No Place Like Home

After Dark in the Cascades