It isn't easy!

There are "collectors" and there are "collectors." I know a few compulsive butterfly collectors who cannot pass one without snatching it in a net and sticking it in a envelope, or popping it into a killing jar.

Then there are those - such as my wife Sue - who cannot pass by a butterfly without collecting a photo of it. Then there are people like me.

Kris Kristovich of Sisters is in the same boat. Over the years Kris and I have been friends and exchanging e-mail, he has sent me some very spectacular photos: Coyotes in winter hunting in the deep snow of Yellowstone National Park; the magnificent red fox that spent a week or so hanging around his place; and turkey vultures soaring by his kitchen window, posing for him.

Last week Kris sent me some spectacular flying dragonfly photos. His blue-eyed darner is a knockout! Kris can tell you, taking photographs of flying insects is not something for the timid to take on.

The bug hit me (pun intended) when my son, Dean (who is now a full Colonel in the Air Force with five kids of is own) and I were looking for Sonoran gopher snakes near Tucson, Arizona, and came upon hovering male flower flies defending their territory.

The problem was, they were just out of reach for me to photograph them in flight. Oh sure, it was easy to get them when they came to visit their favorite flower and sip nectar, but we wanted them flying.

In those days I was using a bellows and 150-mm lens on the front of my old Pentax film camera, and three strobe lights; it was awkward and ungainly to operate, but the results were splendid.

Those elusive flower flies were about 10 feet above our heads, so to reach them, I put Dean on my shoulders, handed him the camera, and then we staggered around the salt-brush and flowers like a couple of drunken sailors.

Dean gave me directions while he focused the Pentax. "A little left, Pop. Stop! Back up. Right a little. Now left a little... Got it!" And he did, but it was costly: 10 throwaways to one keeper.

Eastman Kodak loved me in those days; it made me wish I had stock in the company. None of that Japanese stuff for me. I used nothing but Kodak's good old 25-speed film, and went through it like Cecil B. DeMille.

However, now we have digital cameras with that marvelous "delete" function. What a money-saver that is! You can keep right on shooting and deleting until you have what you want.

That's what I did recently at Lava Beds National Monument in California. I got into the territory of a few male Monarchs that were chasing each other out of their respective domains, and decided to catch it on my Canon. My technique was to shoot, look, delete; shoot, look, delete; shoot, "ahhh, save that one."

Kris' technique for photographing dragonflies is: "Have a large focusing rim for quick focusing; have the reflexes of a race driver; have a fast trigger finger; have a strong back and patience standing like a dummy for long periods of time; take an Advil before combat with a dragonfly, and tell yourself that one great picture will be worth the effort and discomfort of the conflict."

Mary Smith of Ponderosa Cascade Estates has the fever, but it probably won't be long until Sisters photographers Gary Miller and Brent McGregor outshine us all. In the meantime, why don't you take a crack at it. All you need is a good lens, good light, Advil, and a lot of patience while trying to focus on the moving insect. Photographing small flying things isn't just a challenge, it's a heck of a lot of fun as well!