It was a pleasant surprise to see this colorful Familiar Bluet damselfly (Enallagma civile) last Friday at Huntley Meadows Park. With the arrival of frigid weather, with temperatures at near-freezing levels at night, however, I fear that it will be my last damselfly sighting of the season.
When I first spotted this damselfly, I had my Tamron 150-600mm zoom lens on my camera. I didn’t want to take my eyes off of the damselfly, for fear of losing sight of it in the underbrush, so I decided to make do with the long zoom lens. I quickly realized that I had a few obstacles to overcome. The minimum focusing distance of the lens is almost nine feet (2.7 meters), so I had to back up. At that distance the damselfly was so small that my autofocus did not want to lock onto it, so I was forced to focus manually, while handholding the lens at 600mm.
I ended up trying to do environmental portraits, rather then the close-ups that I generally prefer to take. I like the way that the seasonal coloration of the background helps the blue of the damselfly’s body really stand out, almost like it is an alien visitor in a foreign land.
Farewell, sweet damsels of the air, until we meet again in the spring.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
You did quite nicely, given all the constraints. As a matter of fact, that great focus on the damselfly’s head reminded me of the old saying: “Keep a sharp eye out…”
Thanks. The eye is what I am usually trying to focus on, but manual focusing with a digital camera is tough–it was a bit easier with my film camera.
[…] for Familiar Bluet at Huntley Meadows Park. As it turns out, another male Familiar Bluet was spotted by Michael Powell on the same date at another location in the park. The record late-date for Familiar Bluet in the Commonwealth of […]