When you spend a lot of time hiking around marshes and swamps you are going to see a lot of Damselflies and Dragonflies. They are a lot of fun to watch, the way they hover and dart to and fro. It is amazing how quickly they can change direction. They look prehistoric and indeed they date back to the Jurassic period. While they might look scary, they are harmless to people and spend most of their time eating other more bothersome insects like mosquitos.
They are a lot of fun to photograph as well. Despite how frenetic they can be in flight, they often hover in place for short periods. They also land on leaves and sticks, remaining incredibly still long enough to photograph. They can see almost 360 degrees and are very difficult to get close to as any approach tends to spook them. However with a good telephoto lens you can get some really nice shots of them. The secret is to just stop and wait quietly when you come across them. If you stay very still they will go about their business and eventually land nearby.
This post contains a selection of the different Damselflies and Dragonflies which I have photographed over the last few years. I cannot really identify different types, but I choose photographs of subjects bearing different colors and patterns just to showcase the variety. Most were taken at the Indiana Dunes park in NW Indiana. A few were from my neighborhood in Chicago near Lake Michigan.
