Better Than the ice Cream man (Slightly)

When I was diddling around at the state park the other day taking pictures, I ended up squatted in the grass along the bank of a creek, trying to get just the right angle on a shot.  And that’s when I noticed that right in front of me were several dragonflies zipping around and landing on the plant life near the water.  Be still my heart!  Y’all know how I love dragonflies, and those little suckers can be difficult to photograph well because they don’t stay still for long.  But there they were, sitting just as pretty as you please right in front of my eyes, as if they were posing.  I could hardly contain myself.  I started snapping away and couldn’t stop.  And that’s how I missed about thirty minutes of the family reunion.  Woops.

Boy, Are My Knees Relieved

I have been trying like crazy to photograph some dragonflies. They are fidgety little suckers. They just won’t sit still, and I’ve tried every way in the world to catch one on a memory card. I see them when I’m busy and don’t have my camera. They tease me by flitting around my head and disappearing. I see them everywhere but home, and when I do see them they’re downright elusive. I have squatted in the garden until my knees locked. I’ve hidden in the neighbor’s flowers, and I spent a fair amount of time Sunday stomping around the muddy and poo filled banks of a pond at a friend’s cattle farm where about a dozen of them danced and dived all around me, never landing long enough for me to snap a decent picture. I’ve been in a bit of a panic about it because it’s dragonfly and butterfly season around here right now, and my window of opportunity to get some pictures is fast running out. Another week and I’ll be out of luck for another year. What a tragedy that would be.

Enter my lovely assistant, Hubby. He gets sucked into my shenanigans all of the time, and he’s watched me for days bouncing around the yard in pursuit of dragonflies. Last night when he walked the dog at bedtime he saw a lovely green dragonfly by the garage door. He shooed it inside the garage and closed the door so I could find Miss Dragonfly this morning. I did. The only problem was she didn’t want to cooperate. She wanted to hang onto the ceiling, out of lens reach. (See, I REALLY need that 70-200mm lens.) He tried carefully shooing her onto the end of a broom and bringing her down to eye level. But after several attempts at that I told him to turn her loose because she was obviously distressed. I know it’s just a bug, but I can’t stand to see critters in distress. Just ask my brother about the great frog incident of 1977. I’ll never shoot a BB gun again.

Hubby guided her onto the broom and set her on the flowers next to the garage. I figured she would zip off into the wild blue yonder, so I picked up my bag to leave for work. Much to my surprise, Miss Dragonfly didn’t go anywhere. Perhaps, she was tired or hungry. Whatever the reason, she stayed put. There she sat, bathed in the warm early morning sunlight, with glistening wings. It was as if the photography gods had placed her there, just for me. I said, “Thank ya’ Jesus,” and grabbed my camera. I snapped away, sweating in my dress clothes and getting wet cut grass all over my feet. I didn’t care. I was in dragonfly heaven. It was bliss, I tell ya’. Hubby just watched and laughed. I have to hang onto that man. Few men would put up with my nonsense. He gets a “production assistant” credit for these photos.