

Dragonfly Photography
Flies with an
Attitude
| This story begins when I went to a local stream,
with new digital camera in hand, eager to practice taking photos
of a few of my realistic fishing flies. The first thing I did
was place a realistic fly on top of a dried twig sticking up
out of the ground |
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After taking one quick snapshot it appeared that noon was
not the best time to take outdoor fly photos, the light was too
bright, creating unwanted glare on the wings. I moved in a bit
closer with the camera, and being unaccustomed to finding and
focusing on small objects, I struggled to find the fly in the
viewfinder. By the time focus was made, the fly was no longer
on the twig. After searching for several minutes, crawling around
on the ground, it finally occurred to me that something had taken
the fly away.
After pulling another fly from my box, and deeply embedding
the hook into the twig, I grabbed the camera, focused thought
the viewfinder, and took a photo that stuck me as being rather
unusual.
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A bright orange dragonfly seemed rather determined
to pull an easy meal from the twig. |
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Luckily the hook held tight, or another fly would
have likely disappeared. |

| I thoroughly enjoyed taking photos of this beautiful
dragonfly and was happy to get a few close-up shots. |

I like this shot of an orange Neon Skimmer (Libellula croceipennis)
dragonfly holding my realistic fly

The dragonfly pulled vigorously, perhaps trying to secure an
easy meal
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Then it struck me, what would happen if a dragonfly
from my fly box was placed on the twig? |
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Almost immediately the orange dragonfly returned, landed beneath
my yellow and blue fly, and slowly creeped closer and closer,
but never did make contact. Numerous photos were taken, and a
variety of facial expressions seemed evident, including this
photo where it appears a mate might have been found. After about
15 minutes of quiet rejection, the orange dragonfly left the
scene.
I began to wish I had a realistic orange dragonfly placed
on the twig to see what would happen. The closest thing I had
was a yellow and brown dragonfly, and perhaps putting some food
in its grasp would entice the orange dragon to return.
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| It returned with an attitude, no hesitation
what so ever, it was time to attack. It was interesting watching
how savage and angry the dragonfly's attitude was, clearly trying
to tear apart the wings of my replica. |
| After a few minutes of furious action, the battle
seemed to have been decided, and he was victorious and boss of
the twig. |
| I felt disappointed these photos were not taken
with better late afternoon sunlight with less contrast but this
was truly an incredible and fun experience. So, I kept playing,
and placed my dragonfly on a different twig to see if the orange
dragon would return with such a territorial attitude. |
|
He crashed landed, knocked my fly sideways, and was
determined to do some wing damage. |
| By this time my lunch hour was over and a burning
desire to tie an orange dragonfly that evening had set in. In
fact I don't recall ever being so eager to get home from work
and start tying a fly. |
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I was back the next day, with my realistic replica
orange dragonfly |
| I enjoyed creating a realistic dragonfly and
the unusual part was not my typical daydreaming about beautiful
wild scenery and raging rivers full of huge fish, while fly tying,
instead envisioning both violent as well as mating attitudes,
captured and released with my camera. |

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