How to Browse and Read DragonflyPix Dragonfly and Damselfly Photographs

DragonflyPix is a photo site for European and Australian dragonflies (Anisoptera) and damselflies (Zygoptera). You can browse species pages, open any thumbnail to see a larger image with 13 pieces of shooting information underneath, download the small 1200 x 800 versions for personal viewing, and buy photographs. The site deliberately has no Flash intros, animations, pop-ups, advertising or product endorsements, so it suits people who want to look at insect photos and species records rather than a media-rich storefront. The page does not state prices or whether checkout requires an account, so treat those as things to confirm on the site before buying.

What the site offers

If you want a specific species, start from its species page rather than hunting through the whole collection. If you are simply curious about dragonflies and damselflies in general, the same pages work as a browsing route.

Reading the 13 items under each photograph

The site explains the caption format with the first photo on the Azure Bluet (Coenagrion puella) species page:

1 / 20; PhotoID: Da071 21/06/2016 15:32 Sweden F8 1/160 180mm ISO400 Canon7D2 -Crop -Flash MF

Read it left to right:

• 1 / 20 — this is the first of 20 photographs of that species on the site.
• PhotoID: Da071 — the unique identifier. The first two letters are usually Da for damselflies or Dr for dragonflies.
• 21/06/2016 — date the photo was taken.
• 15:32 — time it was taken.
• Sweden — country where it was taken.
• F8 — aperture.
• 1/160 — shutter speed.
• 180mm — lens focal length.
• ISO400 — ISO setting.
• Canon7D2 — camera model.
• -Crop — the photo was not cropped; a cropped photo would show +Crop. As of January 2023 the site says it has no cropped photos.
• -Flash — no flash was used.
• MF — manual focus.

This caption is useful in two ways. It lets you compare how the same species was shot across countries, cameras and settings, and it gives you a citable PhotoID if you want to refer to a specific image.

Downloading and using the small versions

The 1200 x 800 small versions are free to download, but the permission is narrow. The site asks that you do not:

• distribute them to any third party,
• modify them in any way, or
• publish them on any other website or by any other means

without prior written permission. The same restriction applies to the site's text. So the small files work for your own reference and study, not for reposting, remixing or sharing.

Is this the right site for your task?

• Buying photos: the site says it sells photographs, but the home page gives no prices or payment details. Check the purchase route on the site before assuming cost or account requirements.
• Finding a species: yes — species pages with numbered thumbnails and PhotoIDs are built for this.
• Using images in your own project: only with prior written permission; the free download does not cover publication or modification.
• Expecting a flashy gallery: no — the site intentionally avoids animation, pop-ups and ads, and presents the photographs as the main content.