The length and small size of damselflies make then a challenge for me to photograph clearly. Moreover, it is my experience that they rarely choose to land in places where I can isolate them against an uncluttered background. Yesterday I was fortunate when this Bluet damselfly perched near the end of an interesting budded branch overhanging the water and I managed to get a shot that I like.
Bluets are a whole group of damselflies of the genus Enallagma that often are very difficult to identify down to the species level, so I don’t feel back that I can’t decide whether or not this is an Atlantic bluet or an American bluet or some other kind. Apparently the only way to tell them apart is to capture them and examine them with a magnifying glass. In my case, I am not sure a magnifying glass would help.
I am thinking of buying a guide to dragonflies and damselflies that I can study during the winter so that I’ll be better prepared next year to identify more correctly some of the subjects that I shoot (and I love to photograph dragonflies and damselflies, challenges notwithstanding.
Bluet damselfly in mid-September
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
Great photo, Mike. I love the color, and you had good depth of field. What were the camera specs on this shot?
I was shooting with my usual Canon Rebel XT with the55-250mm lens set at 250mm. Settings were F8, 1/320 sec, and ISO 100 and I has set my exposure compensation at -1.I tried to shoot from an angle that gave me decent depth of field and the damselfly is mostly in focus (the tail is a little soft).
My favorite color.
Obviously, the damselfly posed just for you … so we all could see it.
Great picture!