Taking photographs of insects is often a tricky proposition. These skittish little creatures always seems to land where you can’t get a clear shot or just too far away to get a close enough composition (unless you like taking walks with an enormous telephoto lens). The key I have found and the only recipe for any success is patients. You need to keep your eyes open, track them and move slowly into position once they land (for flying insects like dragonflies). The other thing you need to do is have your camera settings set up before hand as they don’t generally stay in one position for too long. I either shoot on manual or aperture priority with spot metering for focus. To try and get the best shot I usually take a shot, move closer and take another and so on so I don’t completely miss a shot. The closer I get the better but I always have a shot, albeit maybe from further away than I want, that I can crop if need be.

My most recent trip  was quite fruitful as I was able to capture 3 very different and colorful dragon flies – one green, one red and one blue. Until recently, I didn’t even know these colorful variants existed in these parts.