Common Darter (female)

[Jonathan Ashton]

Canon 50D canon 180mm macro ISO 200 1/50 sec f8
I had to do a bit of brushing to mute the background, not having much luck at all this year with dragons landing on good perches.

All C & C welcome.

[Bob Miller]

Johnathan....I like this perch as it colors are reflected again the bg...quite lovely!....great overall sharpness but could use a bit more sharpness in the head- but not really a big deal...as is ....its really lovely!

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Jonathan. This is a nice looking dragonfly giving you a good pose. Nice sharpness overall, but I agree with Bob that the head could be just a bit sharper - you might try some additional selective sharpening there. There is a lot of color and texture in the leaf and I find it competing for my attention with your subject. You might consider cropping some from the left to help focus more of our attention on the dragonfly. :S3: If this image was taken near your private pond, you might try setting up some photogenic perches to see if the dragonflies will use them. Overall, this is well done.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Thanks Bob & Steve - I agree regards the head.
Steve I have got perches set up in the form of reeds and plants etc, trouble is they tend to land on stones at present because the weather has not been too warm. (This shot wasn't taken at my garden pond.)