On Wednesday I travelled to Huntley Meadows Park with fellow dragonfly enthusiast Walter Sanford in search of some late-season species. A vernal pool in the woods, where we had seen them in the past, unfortunately has largely filled in with dense vegetation over the course of the last few years. The changed habitat appears to have caused out target species to disappear and we left that area empty-handed.
Fortunately, though, there are other areas in the park to explore, including a boardwalk that runs through a wetland areal, and we did manage to get some shots of other subjects. The day was starting to come to a close and we started down a gravel-covered trail heading for the parking lot. As I was scanning the vegetation on the side of the trail I suddenly caught sight of a spreadwing damselfly perching in a patch of greenbrier vines.
I was not sure what species it was, but Walter initially identified it as a female Southern Spreadwing damselfly (Lestes australis), but a closer examination of the photos of the dragonfly by an even more experienced dragonfly revealed that it is a female Slender Spreadwing (Lestes rectangularis). The damselfly was reasonably cooperative and perched in a couple of different places on the vines before it flew away.
Walter and I shoot with very different gear configurations and we often like to do complementary blog postings to show how two photographers shooting the same subject can produce somewhat different results. I was shooting with my Canon 50D and Tamron 150-600mm zoom lens, which has a minimum focusing distance of 8.9 feet (2.7 meters), so I had to be pretty far from the damselfly to get a shot and focused manually. I was also using a monopod for stability. Walter was shooting with a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ300 superzoom camera and a full-sized flash and was able to get a bit closer to our subject and composed his shots from different angles.
Be sure to check out Walter’s blog posting today entitled “Slender Spreadwing damselfly (female)” to read his narrative and see his excellent photos of this beautiful female Slender Spreadwing damselfly.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
I love the drama of how you “find” these lovely subjects to photograph. Great photo and post, as always. Thank you, Mike.
Thanks, Suzette. Identification guides give some indications of the preferred habitat for birds and insects, but it turns out that they don’t always follow the guides. I have learned to keep scanning and stay ready all the time that I have a camera with me. It is amazing how often I see really cool things and then the challenge becomes trying to photograph them. It’s a fun challenge and I really enjoy sharing the results here in my blog.
Thank you Mike, I enjoy your posts. Have a wonderful day.😊🦋
Wow, spotting this is a major accomplishment, Mike, and then photographing is yet another great feat. It’s not often we get a chance to see two different photographers capturing one subject, so I’m off to see Walter’s version. Great post, as always.
It fun to see how these complementary posts turn out. In addition to the differences in camera gear, out backgrounds and personalities are different and those differences are reflected in the way that we write our postings. Walter has a background in science and I am a proud product of a liberal arts education–I was a French major as an undergraduate.
She is beautiful, especially with those arresting turquoise eyes.
The spread wings were what attracted my attention initially, but it definitely was the eyes that kept me looking.
Nice shots of a fragile beauty.
Thanks. “Fragile beauty” is a wonderful description of this tiny creatures that seem almost magical to me.
I am confused if it was dragonfly or damselfly, but regardless, it is (as my son used to say) “Beauty! It’s a Beauty!!”
Damselflies generally have skinnier bodies than dragonflies and their eyes tend to be widely separate, whereas the eyes of a dragonfly are close together and often touch each other. I like the idea of calling them all “Beauties.” 🙂