Dallying with the damsels

Damselflies that is, smaller and more delicately built than their larger dragonfly cousins, but equally photogenic.  Over the last couple of weeks I've been able to capture a few nice shots of three of the commoner local species, a promising start to the summer.

It started with a female Large Red damselfly, Pyrrhosoma nymphula, in the typica colour form, that wandered into the front garden at the end of May, giving me a chance for a few shots - including a close up.

Pyrrhosoma nymphula forma typica -  female large red damselfly

Pyrrhosoma nymphula forma typica -  female large red damselfly

A few days later a male showed up round the little pond in the rear garden and posed for long enough to allow me to get the 180mm macro lens onto a tripod to do some natural light / fill flash photography.

Pyrrhosoma nymphula  -  male large red damselfly

The hard part, as always with side views of insects, is getting the whole damselfly parallel with the sensor plane so that both the head and tip of the tail are in sharp focus.  Practice helps - but blind luck and a good few tries seem to be as important.  The extra working distance of the 180mm macro lens really helps.

Pyrrhosoma nymphula  -  male large red damselfly

A little further afield - well, close to the woods where I walk the dogs - I came across both male and female common blue damselflies, Enallagama cyathigerum.  Well away from the still water they prefer, they were both a bit skittish but, eventually, I managed to get some reasonable shots.
 

Enallagama cyathigerum - common blue damselfly male

Enallagama cyathigerum - common blue damselfly male

Enallagama cyathigerum - common blue damselfly female

Meanwhile, on the streams that flow down from Dartmoor, Beautiful Demoiselle damselflies are emerging.  Calopteryx virgo is one of two UK species with pigmented wings, brown in the case of females and immature males, iridescent blue in mature males.

Calopteryx virgo - immature male

Calopteryx virgo - immature male beginning to develop the blue wings of maturity

At the location I took the two shots above I didn't manage to capture an adult male - so here's one I photographed a couple of years ago.  They'll be more common in a few days, ready for my next trip out.

Calopteryx virgo - mature male

Of course, typically for immature males of any species, some can be very vain.  This one was quite happy to allow me to set up the 180mm macro and tripod at 1:1 working distance (about 18cm), maneuver around, and fire off multiple shots at close range to get some different views than the conventional side on or top down shot.  It even obligingly switched backgrounds while staying close to me.  In the second of the shots it's eating its lunch, a small midge.

Calopteryx virgo - frontal view of immature male

Calopteryx virgo - frontal view of immature male

An enjoyable start to what I hope will be a productive summer.

As always, click the pictures to access the larger versions.