The End Of Flight - Dragonfly

1 day ago

2 min read

For a long time I've had a project in my head called The End of Flight, inspired by all the natural flying things that I find on my walks, sadly brought to ground.

It's filed alongside Melancholy Menagerie inspired by sad, faded animal sculptures in the rain I saw on top of a narrow boat on the canal.

Neither project has yet taken any tangible form except for photographs.

Usually The End Of Flight involves birds and insects and possibly mammals such as squirrels when they are leaping from one tree to another, but I don't rule out plants.

Sycamore trees have winged seeds often called helicopters or spinners but I prefer the term keys. In the early Autumn they cover the ground and gradually turn into skeleton keys!

Sycamore tree keys skeletonised naturally, on a white background. — Sycamore skeleton keys and their shadows. Photograph: Angie Rogers

Recently I found a whole bunch of them which I brought home to photograph as I noted the beauty of their colour and shape. At the time I recognised that their forms reminded me strongly of dragonflies.

Even more recently, my walking companion spotted an amazing creation of nature which I transported home with ultra care in my cupped hands.

The empty exoskeleton of a dragonfly, brown and pale buff colour on a white background. — The transparent exoskeleton of a dragonfly. Photograph: Angie Rogers

It is a dragonfly or more specifically the empty shell that used to contain a dragonfly.

The most astonishing aspect is that the entire abdomen, thorax and head are transparent and completely empty. I had no idea such things existed. Nature always produces gifts to surprise and enthrall us.

Sideways view of transparent and empty exoskeleton of a dragonfly. — You can see that there are no contents and its just an empty shell of a Dragonfly. Photograph: Angie Rogers

This wondrous item is purely the chitin exoskeleton of the dragonfly after the contents have been consumed by all those creatures that do that useful job.

Zoomed in view of the exoskeleton of a dragonfly focusing on the eyes and thorax, on white background. — I just could not get my phone camera to focus on the eyes. Photograph: Angie Rogers

Here are the sycamore keys and the dragonfly together, making a beautiful kind of harmony.

Skeletonised dragonfly alongside skeleton keys from a sycamore tree, shades of pale brown and black on a white background. — Sycamore winged seeds and dragonfly, both skeletonised. Photograph: Angie Rogers

When you find exciting or exquisite manifestations of the natural world, they are gifts and you are blessed by nature. This is especially true when your find is something that happens on your everyday local walk and not some exotic destination.

Don't waste the opportunity. You don't have to be especially 'good' at drawing, painting or photography. You can spend ages happily experimenting with your phone camera, trying out different angles, natural light direction and poses to get to the essence of the treasure like I tried to do here.

It doesn't even matter if your results don't please you, or you feel dissatisfied. Its all learning you can apply to the next one and your understanding of how things are put together is increased. Your world is enlarged.