One of the questions I was asked in my most recent adoption was what I would do if I were not a physicist. I’m pretty sure I would do something in science, and I have an interest in evolution and paleontology. The stumbling block to going in that direction was the squishy part of biology — when I was in school, I was pretty sure animal dissection would start by making me weak-in-the-knees, followed by me throwing up, and I had no desire to test that prediction. Consequently, I haven’t studied a whole lot of biology, including entomology.

But dragonflies are pretty fascinating. They don’t fall under the “bugs to be avoided” category — not gross house-invaders, nor do they want to sting me. I had no idea that they flap their sets of wings out of phase, though it makes sense (if it were in phase, why not just have a bigger wing?) But I have some shots where it looks like maybe the two sets are at slight different frequencies, so the phase changes. I also didn’t realize how much they glide when they fly. And the flapping is low enough in frequency that it shows up well on a high-speed camera — a much lower pitch than many other insects.

It’s also really hard to pan a camera to follow them. I think I saw six distinct species; these were the biggest and flew high, while a few others tended to hug the ground, and yet others I only saw in the woods.