Mexican Amberwing

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Today I’m featuring an image of one of my favorite dragonflies.  This is a Mexican Amberwing.

These dragonflies are small but brilliant.  I’d estimate that one of these is no more than about 1 1/2 inches in length (about 3.8cm).  When one sees one in sunlight it seems to glow, like a brilliant piece of untarnished copper.  On this individual, a male, even the wings are a brilliant copper color.

Mexican Amberwings are difficult to photograph.  They’re not particularly timid and I usually can approach one fairly closely.  However, they like to perch over water and that frequently means getting one’s feet wet when trying to photograph one of these dragonflies.  I found this individual sitting on a reed midway into the creek at Sweetwater Wetlands.  As far as I’m concerned, wet feet are a small price to pay for capturing an image of something that is this beautiful.

Image made with a Canon 5DS-R, 180mm f3.5L Macro Lens, illuminated by Canon Ringlite, stabilized by monopod, M setting, ISO 100, f8 @ 1/160.