Cropped, sharpened.

This is a male Eight Spotted Skimmer dragonfly.

"This dragonfly features the standard skimmer body form, and earns its name from the eight black markings on the wings. It is similar to the twelve-spotted skimmer, but lacks the black markings on the wing tips of that species. Males are additionally adorned with a total of eight opaque white spots. - Wiki"

Dragonflies are very busy hunting and are also quite territorial...meaning they can be observed "working" the same area constantly. As a result of that they also tend to land on the very same twig, reed, stick ,etc...every time they take a break from aerial hunting.

So I only had to observe a specific dragonfly and wait until it perched nearby. Then I would slowly approach hoping not to scare it away and take the pics. IF they do fly off, I just stand there very still up to five minutes and sure enough they will land on the very same stick. Patience and a little stealth craft wins the day.