Dragonfly up close

[shane jordan]

I took this shot I believe a little over two years ago. Has always been one of my favorite macro shots. I rarely do shots like this anymore, I need to get back into macro shooting. I remember sitting at perches in the high heat waiting for the dragonfly to land in a spot I wanted him to. Many times they would land on my camera or hand if I was still enough.
http://shane.linuxgangster.org/gallery2/d/1565-13/P8241591.jpg

[Christopher Miller]

Hi Shane, Could you please post the EXIF info? The detail and colors in the eyes is amazing. Looks to me like a little more DOF would have been nice. Composition looks good. Could use a little more room on the bottom, just so that his toes aren't cut off. Nice clean BG, though the OOF twig is a little distracting. Over all, an excellent shot and one I would be happy to have in my files!

[shane jordan]

Hi Shane, Could you please post the EXIF info? The detail and colors in the eyes is amazing. Looks to me like a little more DOF would have been nice. Composition looks good. Could use a little more room on the bottom, just so that his toes aren't cut off. Nice clean BG, though the OOF twig is a little distracting. Over all, an excellent shot and one I would be happy to have in my files!

Here are the stats:
F/11
iso: 400
1/10 shutter
105mm sigma on a Olympus E-510.

I no longer have the olympus camera, I converted to Canon a while back.

[Mike Fuhr]

Very neat image. I love the shallow dof that still captures the head and eyes. I love the oof wings and their angle.

[Dave Leroy]

It is certainly sharp where it needs to be. Nice colours as well. Dave

[Julie Kenward]

Very nice head on angle, Shane! Love how big and important the eyes are in the frame. I find the stem off to the side to be really distracting, though and because it's behind a wing it's going to be a real pain to try to eliminate. I also agree with Chris that the toes are a bit cut off - having a little more room at the bottom would have been nice. I also think a pop more of contrast would be nice to put a little bang in those big blue eyes. Great details and really good set up - just needed to clip off that little piece right behind the perch!

[Mike Moats]

Hey Shane, the sharp details and the color in eyes is awesome. Agree with others about the stem behind the wing, but we can't always get what we want when shooting these guys. My suggestion would be to clone out the small stem head peeking in at the bottom of the frame on the left side of the main stem. Well done.