For the last six months I have been exploring stretches of the Little Stour in Kent. Rivers are such rich places for wildlife and since they are home to a myriad of species from damselflies and butterflies through to kingfishers, ducks and flowers they are, in turn, a great location for photography. Unfortunately, my nearest stretch is a good 45 minutes drive away and although not exactly the other end of the earth it is, I find, just a little too far to make as regular visits as I would like.
I was keen to find and photograph arguably our most striking damselfly, the demoiselle, a species I last photographed a good 20 years ago in Powys, Wales. For two consecutive mornings I arrived pre-dawn with a crescent moon and stars in the sky. I would make my way to the river and in the increasing light begin searching for the damselflies. On my first morning, after 20 minutes, I still hadn’t found one until I searched a dense patch of reed. I immediately spotted its unmistakeable dark form perched on a leaf and then I saw another, and another. In total, along a 4 metre stretch, I counted no fewer than a dozen banded demoiselles each jewel-like, covered in dew. This really was a roost, I thought, in the truest sense of the word! Due to their inability to move, getting close to them was far more straightforward than by shooting in the middle of the day, a time which I largely avoid anyway, much preferring to work in the early morning and evening utilising the more atmospheric conditions.
Given that there were so many you would think that finding an individual to concentrate on would be easy but, unfortunately, not all were accessible. Still, there was more than enough to choose from and since I was keen to put them in context with their environment, I looked for those that allowed an interesting angle or were in photogenic situations. It’s always a good feeling to get your first images under your belt and it’s at this point I find myself relaxing and not feel as hurried. This is the time, I find, that I often produce what I consider to be my best images akin, I guess, to a painter sketching on his (or hers!) pad before committing brush to canvas.
The warmth of the rising sun was held at bay by a nearby woodland allowing me a little more time to work on these stunning insects. As soon as the sun hit the damselflies I could see them vibrate and shake their wings free of the dew as if ‘revving-up’ for their morning’s patrol. By 6.30 they were dancing over the river and I was on my way home.
