Common darter

[Jonathan Ashton]

Tripod Canon 7D Canon 180mm macro ISO 250 1/160 sec f11
Another shot by my garden pond, I had difficulty in trying to get all the wings in focus, this is a teneral and it was continually changing wing positions trying to optimise blood flow ready for maiden flight. The background consists of out of focus flowers and ferns at the pond side.

[Jason Stander]

Stunning Jonathan... excellently exposed detail... sharp everywhere... just pops from that bg... nice to have a different angle... love the lift of the left leg... super work mate!:w3

[Randy Stout]

Jon:

I like it too. The colors are great, bg plays very well with the dragon. Very nice details.

My only thought about changes would be a slightly lighter perch would have been less dominant in the image. Now if you can just train them to land in the right spot!

Cheers

Randy

[Jonathan Ashton]

Randy, I have already implemented your suggestion regarding the perch.. Training has commenced but they are a little slow on the uptake at present.:w3

[OvidiuCavasdan]

Sharpness and details are great. Very nice light and BG colours are awesome. Excellent image.
Good luck training them for landing as you wish!:w3

[Anita Bower]

Outstanding. This is a beautiful image, whether or not one likes insects. :-) I like those spread out wings catching the light, and the details on the rest of the body. The bg is very pleasing. I like the juxtaposition of the body and the twig, coming at different angles. It would be easy to lighten the twig if you wanted. A luminous image.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Many thanks everyone for your comments.

[Diane Miller]

Beautiful sharpness and colors, and the light on the wings is wonderful!

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Jon. Another beautiful dragonfly image and it really shows off the shininess of those newly expanded wings (interesting that its already got a tear in one of them - something didn't work quite right). Very nice light, comp, sharpness, and background. I hope the training is going well. :S3: Very well done!