Dragonflies of the Everglades.

The Dragonfly. Despite their name dragonflies are not related to flies or dragons. In fact, they are part of an entirely different order of insects. Dragonflies are part of the Odonata order, which also includes damselflies. The Odonata order of insects dragonflies and damselflies includes more than 5,000 different species. The dragonfly exist in many countries around the world.

Within the United States, there are about 400 species of dragonflies. You often see dragonflies near bodies of water ponds, lakes and slow-moving streams because they lay their eggs on or near the water.

Swamp Dragons. The dragonflies were all photographed by me in the Florida Everglades, mostly in the early morning just after sunrise is the best time. The dragonflies are active most of the day but more so early on. They feed on all kinds of other insects especially mosquitoes. In the insect world dragonflies are the F16's they fly incredibly fast and can turn on a dime as the saying goes.



Photographing The Dragonflies.

Photography Tips. Photographing dragonflies is a great experience, best done at dawn or sunset, but can be done all day as the dragons like to feed at anytime. Photographing a dragonfly is of course macro photography but it can be done like I do it with a zoom lens I use my 300mm.

Dragons do buzz around very fast so catching them in mid flight is next to impossible, but they do like to come back to the same perch to eat their catch, so get focused on that and just be patient. Join me on the Google Plus.
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