An Encounter with a Dragon

Last Saturday my family and I painted the Kitchen. Mom, Dad, and J.Michael did most of the painting while I watched Andrew and Kathlena.

We have a kiddy pool in which Andrew and Kathlena will often swim. They had been playing in the pool when Mom brought out our lunches saying that we were to eat outside. While we were eating I noticed a dragonfly of a brilliant blue fly past us and land on a branch near by. I pointed it out to Andrew and Kathlena, both of them seemed very excited, especially Andrew; he kept saying "dragonfly" "dragonfly" with that Russian accent of his. We watched the dragonfly for awhile and I was rather amazed at how long it stayed there. So finally I decided to go get my camera (which was lying on another table close by) and eased my way closer to the dragonfly, stopping and taking pictures every few feet.

I expected it to fly away as I got closer, but it stayed put. Occasionally a strong breeze would sweep through the woods and shake the branch it was resting on, the dragonfly would release it's hold on the branch and hover over the branch until it settled, then it would again land on the branch and I would ease closer once again. He seemed to be completely undisturbed by our presence, and, oh yes, our dogs were sitting right there as well!

Soon I was close enough that the lens of my camera was almost touching it's wings. I stood on tip-toe to get above it so I could get a detailed overshot. As the quick view flashed across the LCD I noticed that my shoes were creating a black blur in the background. I eased my way down and began to move my shoes out of the picture. For some reason the dragonfly chose this moment to take flight. I watched it as it swarmed around us, then the house, then back in our direction where it finally rested on a branch less than ten yards from where I stood.

I began to slowly walk in it's direction, I was once again within a couple feet of the dragonfly. Kathlena walked over to me and began studying the dragonfly as I continued to take pictures, she then went back over to the table an sat down. A few more pictures later I heard Andrew calling me; the dogs were taking the liberty of joining us for lunch. After I shooed them away from the food, I again walked over to the dragonfly, expecting him to be gone, but he was still there.

This time I was able to get even closer, I was so close that I accidentally touched it's wing with the tip of my finger, but this rather friendly dragonfly did not even seem to notice!

What finally ended my picture taking was hitting the branch with my little tripod which was connected to my camera. The dragonfly then flew off for good.

This encounter (please see pictures on sidebar) just goes to show that you can take good quality insect and wildlife photographs even in a big city like Houston and without a high tech telephoto lens.