I already posted about this species of dragonfly before, but I never managed to get a decent photo.
After a few years of attempts, I finally got close to one of them. I am talking about the blue emperor aka emperor dragonfly (Anax imperator), grote keizerlibel in Dutch. I'm really happy with this result:
Olympus Stylus 1s, 235mm, ISO200, f7.1, 1/100s
It's the largest species of dragonflies in The Netherlands; these dragonflies are BIG: their body length is about 8cm (3.2)". They use their size and power to chase away all other dragonflies in the area, or they eat them.
Shortly after, as an unexpected bonus, I saw something you don't get to witness often: a female of the species depositing eggs. I didn't hesitate and walked into the pool, shoes, socks, and all, to get this photo:
Olympus Stylus 1s, 265mm, ISO200, f5.6, 1/200s
Most damselflies deposit eggs with the male still holding the female. These dragonfly ladies deposit their eggs solo, with the males flying overhead to guard them.
At some point, the male started to dive noisily past my head, so I retreated to avoid disturbing them any more. I got a very nice series of photos from this session though, and also very wet socks, shoes and trousers. I didn't care.