When an Autumn Meadowhawk dragonfly (Sympetrum vicinum) landed on my thigh last Friday, my first thought was to get a photograph of him. Fortunately, my 100mm macro lens was already on my camera—in anticipation of a shot like this—and I was able to capture a close-up, eye-to-eye portrait of the dragonfly by contorting my body and attempting to stabilize my shooting position.
My blue jeans were broken in and their texture, color, and pattern made a pretty cool backdrop for this colorful dragonfly. It may be my imagination, but he seemed to be looking up at me with a mixture of curiosity and amusement.
For whatever reason, many of these dragonflies, which I was able to observe as recently as yesterday, do not seem fearful of people. The classic Drifters song from the 1960’s may talk of spending time with your sweetheart under the boardwalk, but these Autumn Meadowhawks seem to spend most of their time warming up on (and not under) the boardwalk, with periodic mating forays into the bushes.
Click on the photo to see it in higher resolution.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
His tail looks like velvet.
Good thing your jeans weren’t new! It’s nice to have friendly ones.
I like my faded jeans–who would have ever guessed that a dragonfly would like them too?
You must stay very still. I’m going to have to just sit by a pond some day and see what happens.
Actually I was moving and squirming, but for some reason these little guys were friendly. They may have been attracted by the color or reflectiveness of my clothes. I don’t know for sure why, but it made for a fun photo experience.
Great shot, Mike. Lucky you had the right lens on your camera for this one.
Earlier in the day a dragonfly landed on me and I realized that my 70-300mm zoom couldn’t focus close enough, so I changed lenses (I usually have at least three lenses with me when I am out shooting).