Aki stares at me while I stare at the empty surface of a lake. We are deep in the Troll Woods, a place that the little dog loves to investigate using her nose. She has already catalogued all the smells within her reach. Her patience must be about to run out. But I am not ready to leave until I get a photograph of the dragonflies.

            Two of the big, four-winged insects are flying up and down the lakefront. One hovered right in front of me for a few seconds. It was gone by the time I turned on my camera. I am determined to use my camera to freeze its wings. Aki knows that I am wasting my time. I’ve tried before, without success, to photography a dragonfly in flight. 

            After adjusting the camera so that it will focus on quickly moving objects I turn on the “burst” feature and wait. When I spot the pair approaching, I point the camera at the lake and depress the shutter button and listen to the click-click-click-click of the shutter. 

            At home I will sort through forty or fifty photographs, most will show empty lake water. A few will feature blurry versions of the dragonflies.  Only one will capture with some clarity, one the patrolling pair. I will be relieved that I spent a few minutes in the woods photographing high bush cranberries dripping rain.