Ruddy darter

It’s still a long way to go until we can finally see these guys flying around our ponds, lakes and rivers again – in this case a ruddy darter dragonfly. When looking through my photo archives of the past years, I came across this graphic image of this gorgeous bright red fella. This photo was taken a couple of years ago at the Dutch nature reserve Oosterheide, while on assignment for Natuurmonumenten (Dutch nature conservation).

I can’t remember ever being able to admire an insect this close before – although the use of a telephoto lens did help a lot! The dragonfly didn’t move for about five minutes, while drying its wings in the sun, giving me all the time I needed to admire all its fascinating body parts and, at the same time, search for the best possible composition to enhance its majestic figure.