Blue Dasher

[Steve Maxson]

One from last summer. Blue Dasher males are territorial and will chase any other males that fly by. They also tend to return to the same perch over and over - which helps when planning the shot. This was photographed hand held from a kayak - it's a bit tricky getting a 17-foot kayak into just the right position amongst the reeds. :t3 1D IV, 300 mm f/4 + 1.4X, 1/500, f/8, ISO 400, AF. All comments are welcome and appreciated.

[Diane Miller]

Wow! This is gorgeous, a clean BG with great sharpness and wonderful complementary colors! And extra points for being able to get it from a kayak!

[Ron Conlon]

Simply wonderful

[Jonathan Ashton]

Steve I reckon you can handle a kayak as well as a camera! That is a real peach, great focus and detail and wonderful colour palette.

[Warren Spreng]

Excellent! And hats off to taking this from a Kayak!

[MiroslavMaric]

Hi Steve,

You make my morning with this shot! Beautiful shot with great light, colors and details. Like the perch too. BG tone is well balanced with the color of the insect. And all this you get from kayak! Congratulations!

Cheers,
Miro

[Jerry van Dijk]

Wonderfully done! Colors and details are gorgeous. Too bad it chose a bit of a messy perch, it would have looked even better without the disintegrated leaf (?). I'd be inclined to center the dragonfly. Preferably by adding a bit more room to the left, but if this is full frame cropping from the right might work too.