Orange perfection

Another excellent weather day (hot, sunny, light breeze) to photograph inch long damselflies. You might think this is an Orange Bluet, but it is actually an immature female Eastern Forktail (Ischnura verticalis), found in all of Nebraska's 93 counties. This one patiently allowed me to take many shots which I then sorted through to find the one with the best focus. We have wildfire smoke here which also softened the brightness of today's sun and helped me focus the old-school lens manually. Standing in the mud amongst the shoreline plants, bent over to get the lens within an inch of the damselfly to take these photos, I wonder if the bug bites I sometimes get are worth it. They are. (BTW, insect repellent is a great thing, but if you're trying to get next to these guys, it isn't always practical to use much of it.)

Nikon D7000 DSLR, vintage Nikon series E 1:1.8 50mm lens with a 27.5mm extension to achieve desired magnification. 1/800th second, ISO 800.

GIMP