Lyre-tailed Spreadwing

[Bruce Enns]

This little 1.5 inch spreadwing was one of several species I found at Grohman Narrows Provincial Park near Nelson, British Columbia last week. I caught this one while it was flexing its abdomen and stretching its wings back, which allowed me to get crisper wings from this side view. Spreadwings usually hold their wings at about a 45 degree angle from the body. I like the fine detail in the legs gripping the grass stalk, the 'eye contact' provided by the black area in the centre of the compound eye and the colouration of the face, which sort of looks like a toothy cartoon grin:D...

Canon 40D with Sigma 150 macro and Sigma 2x, 1/250 s, f/11.0 ISO 400, natural light using a Gitzo tripod and Mongoose 2.3 head. Comments and critique wlecome as always!

Cheers!
Bruce
Castlegar, BC

[Kaushik Balakumar]

Oh this is a sharp take - especially the eyes & the legs - lovely. Just feel that as we move towards the tail tip, its losing out of sharpness (just a little bit). May be an f/14 might have overcome that. The yellows on the stem & BG look a tad too warm - but am looking at the image on my laptop screen & hence unsure about it.
I liked the composition.
TFS Bruce.

[Julie Kenward]

Bruce, this is a lovely composition and you captured some very nice detail in the insect. My one question is whether or not the body was really that light of a blue as it almost looks "hot" to me. Kaushik had an interesting point about the BG being a bit on the yellow side - it could just be that it looks overly warm next to the cooler toned insect. I'd try color shifting it a bit and seeing if you could get more of a cool tone overall to match the color of the dragonfly.

You definitely got me with his grin! :D

[Bruce Enns]

Thanks, Kaushik and Jules...yes, as with many damsels and spreadwings, they get very blue-grey as they get older, so I think the blue colour is true. The sun was shining brightly that afternoon (at around 4 PM), so the light was quite warm. The colour temp in ACR as shot says 4750, so it is biased toward the blue already quite strongly.

Thanks for your critiques!

Bruce

[Ed Vatza]

Hi Bruce,

You d-fly guys kill me. You get such great poses against such beautiful backgrounds. To me, it seems like d-flies never even land let alone pose.

Very nice image. I happen to like the color and "pattern" of the background a lot. The detail on the wings and legs is excellent. It does look like you were dealing with a bit of harsh light but handled it well.

[Bruce Enns]

Thanks Ed...spreadwings and damselflies actually do more perching and posing than flying around in my experience. You just need the a good spot and the right search image to find them.

Cheers!
Bruce

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hi Bruce,
Color looks right on but they do tend to look a bit hot with that color. toning them down selectively would remove that distraction and Robert showed how (scroll down)......although on a perch here; http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=16313
Lovely BG and pose.

[Don Lacy]

Very nice damsel image , well composed and sharp and the color looks right to me on him I have seen many dragons the same color.