Yesterday was a wonderful day for searching for dragonflies at Occoquan Regional Park and among my finds was this beautiful female Painted Skimmer (Libellula semifasciata). This is the first one of the season for this species, which is relatively common compared to most of the early spring species. The patterns on the wing make this species stand out and definitely help in identifying.
I love the way that the different colors on this dragonfly work so well together and give this dragonfly a refined and rather sophisticated look. It is an additional bonus that those colors are mirrored by the background colors in this image.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
A lovely, sharp image, Mike. I love the marbled background!
Thanks, Eliza. It is always cool when I can get a nice backdrop like that. When photographing living subjects, I often don’t have the luxury of changing my position to get a better angle or background.
The lighting is really special and the dragonfly glows amber.. quite marvellous!
Thanks, Liz. I love getting shots of dragonflies and it is particularly gratifying when I can do so in an artistic way.
Stunning shot of a real beauty.
Thanks. As you can probably tell, I am really excited as more and more dragonflies appear.