This blue-eyed darner, a type of dragonfly (thank you, Google), flew into view Tuesday afternoon so I focused on it when it perched briefly on the side of one of the pergola’s crossbeams. It wasn’t completely visible but I was afraid if I moved a few inches out the door and to the right a bit for a better view, with my luck it would have flown away as soon as I emerged from the house. Those huge blue eyes were probably watching my every move. In the second shot, it moved its body into the sunlight so its colors show up better . The colored patterns on the dragonfly look almost like camouflage but the bright blue makes it stand out, not blend in.
Focal Length 850mm; Nikon D800 in High Speed Crop mode; ISO 640; f/5.6; 1/500; not cropped. The dragonfly’s length is just under 2 inches and its wingspan is 3 to 4 inches but the angle truncates the wings so they look shorter.
