Common darters coupled

[Jonathan Ashton]

Canon 7D Canon 180mm macro tripod ISO 400 1/500sec f6.3
This happy couple were by my pond side. I took several exposure at differing ISO settings and angles. In an ideal world i would have used f8 but the background would not have been sufficiently diffused. there is a shadow behind the female's wings and if I moved around to eliminate I only introduced others, this was about the clearest shot I could get. I have tried a different sharpening regime - would be interested to read your comments.

[Andrew Merwin]

Jon, I like the BG a lot. The soft pastel colors are lovely. I also like the perch. It balances the image for me. The head & thorax of the top bug appear a bit soft to me. However, I think it is because I am viewing it through the wings. Do you agree? Otherwise, the sharpness seems right to me. The spider web strand on the plant stalk is a nice touch. TFS.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Thank you Andrew I agree entirely with your observations. As you will probably know I took a number of images from slightly different angles and this was about as clear as I could get . The wings of the male are obscuring the head and as you will no doubt guess when they were not there were interfering background elements that could not have been cloned or patched because they were behind the wings of the female. That is why the aperture is relatively wide - to mute the background.