A very pretty little Blue tailed Damselfly snacking on another flying insect.

The Location

The location of his image isn’t really relevant, it could be just about any waterway in the UK where dragonflies are found. It just so happens to be on the River Dee near the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct just outside of Llangollen.

The Story

At the time I had been preparing a calendar for 2024 and I found myself a few months short. So, I hit up a couple of mates to see if they wanted to go get some photos, we made our plans and set off. I had been to the aqueduct before, in fact, I was there a few weeks earlier to catch up with some friends from Aus, but I had never taken the track to the viaduct about a mile downriver.

As I was looking to capture a wide angle landscape image, capturing small objects didn’t even cross my mind. I had just got the shot I was wanting to capture and was walking through the long grass when this little guy caught my eye. Initially, it would land for a second or two and then fly off, but I kept chasing after it and it eventually paid off when it caught a small fly of some sort and then spent the next few minutes sitting on a piece of grass, which was very kind of it.

In my research into what this little creature was, I found that apparently, it is not a very common species, so I think we were very lucky to see it. In addition to this, it was less than 2cm long so not easy to spot.

The shot

Camera:                                Canon 800D

Exposure:                              1/100

ISO:                                      100

Aperture:                               f/5.6

Lens:                                     Canon EFS 55-250mm

Focal Length:                       250mm

Other:                                    None