REPOST : SMARTPHONE PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS on How to Capture a Damselfly Doing A Yoga Stance

Have you ever heard or seen a damselfly doing a yoga stance? Yes, they do!
This is what it looks like.

What's happening here is that - this little guy has just finished recycling his feces into another lunch. "What do I mean?" you might ask. I took this picture one sunny afternoon, while I was having my after lunch coffee in our backyard. I saw this damselfly just hanging out on one of those dried up Lavender flowers. They seem to love stems and leaves. I often see them resting on them. It was past his lunched time and it was just resting there so I had my smartphone camera ready to take his pic in case the sun shines. I'm referring to it as a he judging from the color of his body. It is the male species that looks more catchy in the animal kingdom (some species may have both male and female having the same color).

Then that thing happened. The end of his tail slowly opened, I thought he was going to take a leak. Then he slowly curled his tail up and I just kept pressing the capture button waiting for what's going to happen. It was all a very slow movement and I've managed to capture it till his tail is almost looking all curled up. I turned my camera off thinking he was just stretching or something not knowing that I shouldn't have! Doing that was all a mistake, the little guy lifted up the end of his tail to his mouth and deposited there what we normally flush off our toilet bowls. And I thought he was cute and still think so. :D

So how did I manage to take this shot using just my smartphone camera? Let me spill it all out for you.

To be able to capture such a teeny tiny object with just your smartphone camera requires being close to it. Unless you are very calm - you'll freak that little guy out he'll just fly away. Remember, he may be tiny but those eyes are humongous they can see you pretty well and they're not dimwits not to know how huge you are.

If you happen to have read my very first article about how to take a picture of a hoverfly using just your smartphone camera, too, then you know that the next step is to have your smartphone's camera's focus all ready and the shutter shut off. You have to be mousy quiet taking the shots.

I also said it there that everything is proper timing. See, damselflies eat around 12:00 to 13:00 pm. Around 15:00, that's when most of them do what looks like a yoga stance. Let's say you have managed to be calm and yet the damselfly that you were trying a picture of - seem fidgety and it keeps flying away from one stem or leaf to another. You might ask yourself what could you be doing wrong?

Nothing really, you just have to know that - that damselfly guy hasn't really rested yet. On my very first blog I mentioned above, I wrote it there to get acquainted with the hoverfly - yes it's possible! The same applies to the damselfly. If you get yourself familiarized to these guys then you'll know what time they eat and when to say they are resting and it's easy~~ really. Plus, that's the best time to really take their pictures with your smartphone camera because then you could get as close as you can to those little guys and take as many shots as you can.

On the image above you could see that the damselfly's wings are all spread out. It means it hasn't really rested. It would still fly away. You could tell that a damselfy is resting when it's wings are all folded along its body. That's when you could snapshot away! You can count on it not flying away anymore.

That's not just that. If you get acquainted to the damselfly - like I wrote back on my first blog about the hoverfly, if you stick your finger out they'll fly and land on it. My hubby and I have tried doing it several times. Their hairy legs tickle a bit.

Plus, there's a big chance that the damselflies you have in your garden yesterday would be the very same damselflies you have today and will be having tomorrow. Damselflies may be cute but they actually are predators since they eat other insects. I love having them in the garden knowing that they combat aphids and pests. So, if you expose yourself to those guys, they see you everyday and you do them no harm, you'll even find them hovering around you some time.

I took all of those three pictures above using my Samsung Galaxy Note 1 smartphone camera. I used my Samsung Galaxy A3 2016 edition smartphone camera to capture the one below this to feature it for this post in case I don't get to find my old stack of pictures of damselflies on our fingers. I went out of my garden before making lunch since that's the very same time I often see those guys there. Luckily, this gal was there and it was sunny ^ ^. The universe is really on my side! Thanks be to God! Forever grateful ^ ^ !

Just don't get too excited like I normally get when they land on one of my fingers. They feel that and automatically spread their wings hinting they're not staying there for a while.

Now, good luck and perhaps when the sunshine on your side of the earth and you find yourself a damselfly in your garden, make sure you have your smartphone camera ready and you know what to do and when to do it ;)!

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Make it a great day!