Dragonfly teneral adult emerging

[Bruce Enns]

I came across this teneral dragonfly adult emerging from it's larval exuvium the other day at the Oasis wetland near Trail, BC. I stuck around for a hour and took images of the various stages of emergence...this is the first stage, where the adult emerges upside down from the larval skin.

Canon 40D, Sigma 150 macro with Sigma 2x on Gitzo tripod. Natural light, 1/80 sec, f/22, ISO 400...this is a full frame image.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Bruce,
Very cool nature story. I might be tempted to tone down the brighter beige area a tiny bit.....& since I love the crop tool...take some off the right and top to remove the DF off center a bit.....although I must admit.........the central placement doesnt' bother me that much in this one. Very nice details throughout!

[Mike Moats]

Hey Bruce, nice find and good sharp details. Agree on toning down the hot area.

[Julie Kenward]

Same here. It's a very cool image but has a bit of a "hot" overtone.

[Bruce Enns]

Thanks for your comments Roman, Mike, and Jules...fortunately for me, the dragonfly moved into better backgrounds for most of the rest of the series. I have toned down the original post...and also re-introduced some distractions in the UL...doh!

Cheers!
Bruce