Shropshire photographer captures stunning pictures of a tiny damselfly soaking up a glorious sunset

Wildlife photographer Andrew Fusek-Peters spent hours perched in bog water to capture these perfect images of an emerald damselfly roosting on reeds in front of a picturesque sunset.

The tiny critter, which only measures 38mm long, was spotted basking in the evening sunlight at Long Mynd heathland nature reserve last week.

Andrew, 59, had to set his camera to shoot at 1/32,000 of a second in order to capture the sun's vibrant rays.

The photographer said: “It was perfect weather up there, perfect sunlight at 9pm.

“I was laying on the ground lining up the shot with the sunset. The sun is so bright so I took this at 1/32,000 of a second because it was so strong. Not many cameras can do that.

“I’m about 4ft away using a telephoto lens, which makes the sun big in the frame and lets me focus in on the damselfly.

“Imagine focusing on the brightest thing in the world, it’s very hard. It’s very boggy there too, with lots of mosquitos.”

The wildlife snapper revealed a low sun is needed to spot the resting insects as the light bounces off of their wings, highlighting where they are.

Andrew, of of Lydbury North, added: “I was there half-an-hour before. You need a low sun because it glints off their wings. You spot the glint and then you see them. They’re not flying at this time of the day.

“I’ve got the challenge of lining them up. The breeze is blowing them around and it’s so hard. It’s not very easy, I know that they’re there. They're hard to find and there’s acres of reeds. You have to get a lot of things right.

“It’s really hard work, I'm really glad I don't see many people up there with me. It's’ a bit spiritual, it’s just me and nature.

“The shot is the rare thing here, the creatures are not rare."