That Red Dragonfly

It all started with that red dragonfly; and here's the story...

On a nice day in early March, I had just finished work and was going home for lunch. As I was about to drive off, out of the blue, a few red dragonflies flew over and were zapping around near the front of my car.  I sat there and just watched them.  After a bit, I killed the engine, grabbed my camera and got out.

And they all scattered away...

There I was, standing there with my camera in hand, all ready to shoot, and my subjects are gone!  I was getting hungry, but food can wait.  All I wanted to do was to photograph these amazing creatures.  And so I waited.

Gradually, the dragonflies started coming back, they hovered around me, sometimes even quite close to me.  To check me out, I suppose?

I waited and I waited and I waited.  I stood there and waited, I squatted over the shallow drain and waited.  They zapped in front of me, they perched on some twigs, on the ground... literally flying everywhere around me.  You could just imagine the big smile on my face.

After a while, the dragonflies got used to me being there and started resting closer to me.  That's when I started snapping.  My first attempt at dragonfly photos! 

This went on for about 40 minutes before I finally decided I am satisfied with what I have and I am also really hungry now.  In that span of time, I took only about twelve shots.  I think it was a habit with an SLR; always wanting to save an exposure for that special shot such that I was not trigger happy even with the digital camera.  This is still quite new to me.  Anyway, from that dozen, I junked a few shots and was really stumped by one particular image.

By the beauty of the dragonfly staring right back at me.

This dragonfly is an Orthethrum species of the Libellulidae family.

Libellulidae has the largest dragonfly family in the world and comprise mostly of skimmers or perchers, as they are called.  They are common in many places and are easily identified by the distinctly broadened abdomen.  They also spend more time resting, which makes it easier to capture them "on film". 

The species is commonly found on lakes, ponds and marshes in open situations and is widespread in tropical Asia.

Anyway, for the whole day after that and for the next several days, all I could think of was "Wow!  That's it!  I want to photograph and list all the dragonfly species in Langkawi!"