A beautiful lady!

[Ken Childs]

Canon EOS REBEL T1i
Canon 24-105mm f/4L IS @ 105mm
Manual mode
1/320"
F16
ISO:400
LR & CS3
Tripod
Canon 430EX w/bounce card: On, Fired

I think she's beautiful! :D

I cloned out some flash highlights and blurred the BG. Some banding showed up in the BG when I resized it to post here but it looks OK in the original.

I found this Mantis on a large pepper plant I have growing on my back porch but couldn't get any good angles on her there so I moved her to this board. I would like to crop a bit from the left to get rid of some of the OOF board but I don't want to cut off the leg so I'd love to get some opinions what should be done.

I like the shot but I can't say I'm completely satisfied with it. She's still there so I may have another go at it today if I can find the time. I can't explain the connected antennae. I flicked them a couple of times with my finger and they stayed together. Today they're separated and look normal. :confused:

[Dave Mills]

Hi Ken, technically you did a great job on this. After studying the image there is not much you could do other than crop the subject further( an idea is to crop right behind the front legs and take a small bit off the rt)

If you shoot it again I might try and find a different and more natural base....

[Cheryl Flory]

great image of this mantis. I know they have bright green, but on my monitor it seems overly bright. I might also give a tad more room on the left so the back foot isn't touching the edge. I really like the pose.

[kostas nianiopoulos]

i really love how those guys they are always looking in the camera , verry good ken as useal u do , well done !!!

[OvidiuCavasdan]

I like the pose dof and sharpness, BG also ok. Interesting antenna position. Would have been nice a bit more room to the left, but beeing big insects and having long legs is not very easy framing the subject. I find the perch a bit too big and distracting.

[Aidan Briggs]

Great exposure, and pose. I agree that the perch detracts from the overall image. If you shoot it again, I think a plant will work as a better perch. Nice flash work!

[Julie Kenward]

She's really pulling out all the stops on poses, isn't she? Dang...that's awesome! I love the connected antenna! Only thing I can think of would be to move more to the right so less board was coming at you in the FG. Otherwise an outstanding image, Ken. I haven't seen one of these all year and I'm so disappointed - they are fascinating to watch!

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Ken. A nice pose and the connected antennae look odd, but cool - and make this image unique! Also, nice job on the background. Because the rear leg is essentially touching the edge of the frame, I would suggest cropping from the left almost to the end of the abdomen. If this was in the Avian forum we'd also note the good head angle (doesn't hurt to note it here too :) ). Well done.