Copera annulata

[Dave Johnson]

One from this morning.

1DX, 100L macro lens & 12mm ext tube, manual focus in live view at 5X magnification, tripod, cable release. SS 250, ISO 400, @ F4.

C/C welcome, thanks for looking.



142843

[Jonathan Ashton]

You obviously went to some trouble to obtain a high class image, the quality is excellent, I must admit I am surprised at the DOF you have in the image considering you used an extension tube, I guess this is a very small damselfly. I like everything in this image and find little to criticise, I would suggets however if similar opportunities arise consider a smaller aperture or perhaps question the need for the extension tube (this will put you further back and reduce mag, axiomatically increasing DOF). I would aslo consider just a little more sharpening arounf the head and legs, the body and wings look perfect. Love the background and perch.

[Dave Johnson]

Thanks for looking Jon and for the advice/critique, very much appreciated. I failed to mention this was a crop of the original frame which may explain the DOF mystery. I struggle to get close to dragons so decided to add the Ext T to help fill the frame some which it did. I still had to crop, but the tube saved some pixels which would otherwise have gone in the bin lol.
Copera annulata measures in at about 55mm btw. Thanks once again, Dave J.

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Dave. A beautiful damsel in very nice light and sharp from head to tail! The diagonal of the bent leaf makes for an interesting comp. The background is also very nice - though I would suggest blurring (or cloning over) the visible streaks in the ULC as they tend to pull my eye away from your subject. Other than that minor (and easily fixed) point, this is excellent work!

[Diane Miller]

Just gorgeous! For my taste, you could crop some from the top to minimize the detail up there, if cloning wasn't a good option.

[Arthur Morris]

Simple, parallel, and effective. Is the o-o-f stuff urc another damselfly or another leaf? The latter I suspect.... All in all very nicely done.

[Dave Johnson]

Steve, Diane and Arthur thanks for looking. I cropped a little from the top and cloned over the streaks in the ULC which improved things considerably :)
Arthur, the streaks UL is an oof reed similar to the one the damsel is resting on. Thanks for all your critique/suggestions and interest.

Best, D J.