As you say they are extreamly difficult to photograph once they have woken up and your effort here is very good for the learning expieriance, you already knew what was wrong and how to correct it next time so (although you have a long wait until next summer) your next shots should be much improved
As Rob has said the best time to get these is the early morning, just after the sun has risen. There are two reasons for this, the first is that the light is soft and warm and will offer lovelly colour tones for both the dragonflies and any backgrounds that you catch without adding in harsh highlights and dark shadows, and the second reason is simply that they are a lot more dosile in the morning. Usually they will be almost stationary as they spread their wings in the first sunlight to dry off the nights moisture, when they do fly it is at a much more lesurly pace making on the wing shots easier too.
Here are a couple that I took early in the morning on a recent trip to the south of France, unfortunately they are all static and not on the wing though
http://www.pixalo.com/community/phot...flys-8005.html