Drying out after the deluge

At one stage this morning, I was just thinking about nipping out into the garden with a macro lens, when it started to absolutely pour with rain, so I decided that settling down to do my Duolingo homework was probably a better bet.

After about half an hour the stair rods of rain had stopped  and the sun came out, so I went to see what had survived the deluge.  A couple of rather soggy looking bees were sitting on leaves drying out, but the butterflies seemed to have been absolutely unfazed by the rain.  I'm guessing that they will have found cover under the leaves of a bush or shrub.  

At the pond, this little lady was hanging on to some leaves looking quite bedraggled.  Normally dragonflies hold their wings out parallel to their bodies, but this unusual pose must be preferred for wet weather as it presumably minimises the potential damage to the wings.

My view of the insect was partially impeded by a couple of leaves, but moving slowly and carefully I was able to tuck them out of the way without a problem.  To actually get this angle on her involved my crouching down on the pond's retaining wall while holding the camera over the water at arms length and using the rear screen to check the focus.  

I'm sure that you can picture the scene, me bent legged arms extended and bum out as a counterbalance, very aware that I was close to the tipping point.   Keeping the camera with its lens mounted flash system steady while doing this was "interesting" and there was a degree of wobbling going on. 

Fortunately there was no mishap, and this shot of a female common darter is the end result.