Eastern Amberwing - male

[Tim Vidrine]

Another amberwing from my backyard. I know I need to get rid of the light OOF plants in the third quadrant. My main concern is the comp. This is full frame and I didn't want to remove any from the bottom to avoid it becoming square. Thoughts?

07/03/2008 19:00
Canon 40D
Canon 180mm + 1.4TC
1/100s, f/7.1, iso500
Eval
Manual Exp
Fill Flash ETTL - 3
Novoflex focus rail

[Julie Kenward]

Nice one, Tim! Head and body are in great focus. BG is good except for the OOF plants that you mentioned. I think if you want the insect to really take center stage, you might consider a tightly cropped horizontal composition but this one is certainly nice as well. If you did try a horizontal crop, I'd cut it off just below the bottom foot with maybe a tiny bit of room at the bottom.

I wish the bottom of the plant and the front edge of the wings were a bit more in focus but it really is nicely done with the 7.1 aperture.

[Tim Vidrine]

Julie, I'll give the horizontal a try.

As always thanks for taking the time,
Tim

[Kaushik Balakumar]

Composition suits my taste. The bokeh is fantastic. Nice sharp subject too.
Only wish u'd opted a slightly lower angle thus making the body visible. The OOF wing now obstructs its view.

[Tim Vidrine]

Kaushik, thanks for the tip. I was so focused on the eye, that I did not see the thorax being obstructed.

[Robert O'Toole]

Great job on positioning the plane of focus Tim. The BG looks so nice also. Sharpness and details are sweet.

The trick with these guys is to wait for another to fly into view for the wings up threat pose or get them once they hover and land again so they will have their wings up.

Robert