PROOF
When his garden population is low, Tiplea captures damselflies at a neighboring pond.THE BACKSTORY
A SUMMERTIME GARDEN TURNED OUT TO BE THE PERFECT
INSECT PORTRAIT STUDIO.FIRST THEY WERE LOOKING at him—
and then he started looking back.
Photographer Remus Tiplea noticed
the damselflies perched on foliage in
his garden in Negrești-Oaș, Romania.
Staring with bulging eyes, the delicate
insects looked inquisitive, Tiplea
thought, and a little imposing. Long
afternoons photographing damselflies
became his summertime ritual.
Through hours of watching, Tiplea
learned the behaviors of the damsel-
flies, a close relative of dragonflies
but with slimmer bodies and nar-
rower wings. He observed when they
got hungry, when they reproduced,
and what caused them to suddenlytake flight. He saw how they behaved
in rain and how they chose where to
sleep. With time, he could tell their
gender and the dominant qualities
in mate selection. If he saw multiple
damselflies in one frame, he’d have
a few seconds to shoot before they’d
show themselves as territorial rivals
(by starting to fight) or lovers. “They
would ignore me completely,” he says.
As years have passed and summers
have grown warmer, Tiplea has noticed
fewer damselflies at his garden pond.
“Their number is inconsistent,” he
says—but “the important thing is that
we are together in the same backyard.”
—DANIEL STONE