Damselflies are beautiful, delicate insects that are often hard to see and photograph. I captured this image of my first damselfly of the year at Huntley Meadows Park this past Friday. I am not very good at identifying these tiny insects, but think this might be a Fragile Forktail (Ischnura posita).
I was standing my the edge of my favorite beaver pond when I saw the damselfly in flight. I followed it with my eyes and was delighted when it landed on a nearby stalk of grass. I didn’t have a lot of maneuver, because much of the area at the pond’s edge is covered with thorny bushes, and I had to pull back a bit to get within the minimum focusing distance of my 70-300mm telephoto lens , i.e. 4.9 feet (1.5 meters). At that range, the dragonfly filled a reasonable amount of the frame.
Lighting was a bit of a challenge and I tried a couple of different settings as the damselfly lifted its tail from time to time. Eventually, it climbed to the end of the stalk and I changed position too and tried a couple of shots (including the final shot) using my pop-up flash.
Most of the time the first shot below is my favorite, but sometimes I like the others as well or more. In any case, I am happy that I was able to get some good shots of my first damselfly of the spring.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Mike Powell 
Good shots, Mike! 🙂 I can’t wait to see these little guys around here soon(ish) as well!
Excellent. I like the background in that last shot.
You sir, are correct — this individual is a male Fragile Forktail damselfly.
Good ones, Mike. It’s good to see they’re flying there again, and I imagine dragonflies and butterflies will start appearing at any moment if they haven’t already.
Another fantastic macro shot – like your ‘taking’ information
Thanks. This is a macro-style shot done with a telephoto lens, which worked out pretty well for this subject.
Great picture and wonderful composition. I like the first one but I also like the one where the end of the stick is visible.
Thanks, Dan. It was nice that the damselfly was will to change positions a couple of different times without flying away, which let me try a couple of different looks for my shots. In most cases, I am happy enough to get any clear shots at all of these little beauties.
For some reason, I love that last shot. Like the New Hampshire Gardener, I like the background, but I also like the way the damselfly is hugging the stalk of grass.
Thanks. It’s the same stalk of grass in all three photos, but in the last one, the damselfly had climbed up to the very tip of the stalk. I like the look of the last shot too, but wasn’t sure if the fact that I had used flash made the shot look a bit less natural.
I didn’t think the last shot was unnatural at all! And it made for a great background!
Really nice photos, all. I couldn’t say which I like best. Your telephoto does a nice macro shot, with good depth of field.