Brown hawker ovipositing

[Jonathan Ashton]

Tripod Canon 7D Canon 180mm macro,ISO 800 1/320 sec f8 (no flash)
I took this shot from the garden pond, hopefully I will get some nymphs which will develop into the imago, this will probably take 2 years, the smaller common darter and broad bodied chasers took 1 year to develop.
All C& C welcome.

[christopher galeski]

nice capture Jonathan,only seen one of these this year,twas a great summer:t3.

[Markus Jais]

Great shot with excellent sharpness. I like the low angle.

Markus

[Jonathan Ashton]

Thanks Chris & Markus, I was pleased to get several shots of this female, she came to the pond almost everyday for a week. The camera was on the tripod which was fully splayed open, two legs were in the pond and one just on the edge so that I got the camera as low as possible. I did of course manage to soak myself but happily not the camera:w3

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Jon,
Fantastic angle and pose. I think the shallow DOF helped in this case as it made the BG recognizable but not compete with the action. A few bright spots in the FG I would tone down a touch.....but an easy tweak to another fantastic image.

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Jonathan. An outstanding image illustrating this behavior! The low shooting angle and excellent sharpness put this one over the top. I would agree about toning down some of the foreground bright spots - this is such a strong image that a couple minutes of extra processing would be well worth it. :cheers:

[Jonathan Ashton]

Thanks Steve & Roman, I had already toned down the highlights but I take on board your comments.