Assassin

[Mike Fuhr]

Took this one in my yard this morning. A bit overcast but at least he was cooperative. Considering a closer crop...

D300
100-300 F/4
F/13
250mm
1/60
ISO 500
minor crop and sharpening applied.

[Julie Kenward]

Mike, I'm wondering why you chose f13? It appears he is pretty much on the same focal plane at this angle - I bet you could have got a way with a wider open aperture and not retained so much of the distracting details in the BG. Any thoughts on that?

As is, I would definitely go with a much tighter crop as the BG really pulls my eye away in almost every corner.

[Valerio Tarone]

Absolutely agree with Julie:the BG is distracting.

[Christopher Miller]

Mike, I agree with Julie's excellent critique. With bugs I would suggest getting as close as possible which will greatly help minimize the BG. Looking forward to your next one!

[Mike Fuhr]

I was having trouble getting the whole bug in focus so I bumped it up to F/13 -- nothing looked sharp enough to me. I also wanted to avoid cutting all the leaves off of the plant it was on which is why I didn't go all the way to 300 mm.