Common Darter Dragonfly (female)
Sympetrum striolatum

Date: 31st July 2007
Location: Aldringham Walks, Suffolk

 

Camera: Nikon D2xs
Lens Nikon 105mm AFS VR Macro
Exposure: 1/200 F14 ISO200

Flash: SB800 with diffuser
Flash compensation: -1 stops

 

This picture is perhaps my favourite of all my dragonfly photographs, so it's somewhat ironic that it wasn't taken on a photographic trip. My wife and I had gone for an afternoon walk and, perhaps inevitably, I'd taken a camera along "just in case". Although I'd got plenty of pictures of Common Darter before, I couldn't resist taking a few shots of this particularly confiding individual, which even landed on my head!

It's worth noting that without fill-in flash, this picture would not have been so successful.

 

Aldringham Walks is managed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds