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For the fourth post in my series of an awesome day at the Norfolk Botanical Gardens, I want to share this pretty damsel fly. It comes with a rather interesting story. Early in the morning (this was the first thing I photographed) I was sitting in the dirt by a bush looking for salticids when I noticed this brilliant green damselfly perched on a leaf. I sat and watched for a bit, when I happened to notice a small gnat fly near the damselfly. Damselflies are carnivorous, they hunt their food. I suppose this one was hungry, and much to my amazement, I saw it take flight, make a circle, catch the gnat, and land back down. All of that happened in less than a second. It was an amazing experience, something I’ve never witnessed in 5 years of photographing insects.

All photos were taken with Canon 5dII, Canon Mpe-65, and Canon mt-24 ex flash, heavily diffused.