Hello! I´m sorry I don´t have a picture to show how it really happened, you just have to take my word for it, and I swear this is a true story... We visited at our favorite pond to see some late Darners. Weather was typically bad as it has been here past weeks. Still, there were two Aeshna grandises lazy patrolling... Very difficult to photograph, they just don´t seem to tolerate anything close to them... So... I desided I just wait still and trusted my luck that in some point another one of them is going to perch close enough and I could try to get some shots. Well... another one of them passed by very close couple of times and I thought I noticed he sort of slowed down his flying when passing me, sort of "checking"... I think it was maybe 3rd or 4th time passing me by, when he suddenly came literally on to my face, as close as (about) 5cm = 2 in hovering still... about 10 seconds... AND then he desided to land on my LIPS... Kissed me about two seconds... It tickled... ...after this "first degree contact" he posed us for awhile just to took off and then disappeared deep in to the woods, this kissing Dargon: {} {} {}
Maybe he took you for a giant Butterfly. :biggrin: How lucky you were that he made friends with you. They are so hard to get. I think they have some special sensors that detects when you get closer than 4-5 meters. You got some great shots of him. I had an encounter with a male A. cyanea yesterday. I had heard of a place with Water Soldiers and was checking it out for A. viridis. Behind that pond was a smaller pond where 6-7 male A. cyaneas were patrolling and hovering. One of them checked me out several times and suddenly I saw him coming towards me and he just bumped into my forehead with his wings. I guess he didn't like me. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me. I would have been a great opportunity to catch them hovering.
That is unbelievable story. Your sure you didn't eat mushrooms? I would' love to see your face when it happened. cheers, Mark
Probably he wanted you to transform into a beatifull female Dragonfly!!!! Eheheh!! Sure would like to see some pictures of the kissing!!!
I am still trying to get anything that compares to your shots and now you practically have em asking you for dates! Love it. glenn
Jukka, honestly, i think that the dragons appreciate how you've imaged them over the years.... and this one just wanted to say an appropriate "THANK YOU"
Great shots, and what an experience, very amazing. I did have one land on my finger once, and I got the picture:smile:
Thank you all! I was really a great experience! There were another, well more like a funny incident last summer when I was shooting these cuties: {} I spotted one male perching on a branch and I though that would be like a nice shot to take. As soon as I placed the tripod and started to focus it took of and landed on my arm. "Oh man, you can´t do that", I said and shaked gently my arm. He took off but landed straight back on to my arm. I shaked my arm again and he landed on my arm again. Then I thought I´ll be smart and after shaked my arm I moved it behind my back... After a short flight the Dragon landed on the top of my head. At that moment there came a man on the near by bridge asking me what I was photographing. I told him Dragons. He was very interested to hear what kind of Dragons there were and was very pleased when I told him about these O. cecilias, that having them in this stream means the water is very clean as they are very sensitive about that. "But as you can see, I can´t exactly photograph of it right now as it is sitting on the top of my head." ...and ofcourse we had good laughs... How come I think I have writen this here before? :smile:
