Emerging Dragonfly

[Steve Maxson]

One evening last June, after some rain showers, I found this dragonfly (one of the clubtails - Family Gomphidae) emerging on a lily pad next to my dock. Fortunately, the water was calm allowing me to take this image at a relatively slow ss. 5D II, 180mm macro, 1/80, f/10, ISO 400, tripod, natural light. RAW file processed in CS5. I cleaned up a lot of floating specks in the water and used NIK Viveza 2 and Color Efex Pro 4 to darken the water and brighten the lily pad. NR on the water and selective sharpening on the pad and dragonfly. All comments are welcome and appreciated.

[Julie Kenward]

Very nice, Steve! I really like the flat angle that this has...it creates a very different look than we normally see. I also like that it is so close to being monochromatic...and the sharp details really stand out!

[Joe Senzatimore]

Graet job on post processing. Fine image with great details. Might rotate it just a bit so the stem come in from either the left or right as the center position makes it a bit static.

[Allen Sparks]

Wow Steve this is great IMO. I like the composition with the centered lily pad but the real subject being to the right in the frame. Great details and your post processing is superb. Love these behavioral captures.

[Dan Brown]

Nice find and capture, Stephen! Hope you got some closer shots also. For comp, I might lower the Dfly in the frame just a little, just seems more balanced there to me.

[Andrew McLachlan]

Great image Steve...I never find them on lilypads...always on the side of the cottage instead.

[Ken Childs]

I love the slight glow on this.....it gives it that early morning just waking up feel! I know it's evening but what the heck! :S3:

I agree with Dan that a slice off the bottom would balance this out. Great work with the capture and processing!