Blue Dasher, male

[Allen Sparks]

Canon 7D, 300mm f4 IS, 1.4x TC II, HH
ISO 400, f14, 1/250s

I'm not fond of the near wing position but he would not listen to my directions...

[John Storjohann]

Allen, it's too bad he wouldn't listen to your posing tips....:t3...it's still a very strong image, with wonderful sharpness along the body and eye, as well as the blade of grass; I do wish there was just a bit more on the LHS..the tip of the grass, more of an area for the dragonfly to look into...but that's a matter of personal taste. Well done!

[Jonathan Ashton]

Nicely caught, I too find that dragonflies seldom listen to instruction! Super detail and exposure on the dragonfly - well done.
I have a little reservation over the green background, it seems a slightly strange shade, it appears to have some blue in it somewhere. I have had similar problems with mine with yellows and I am in the process of reviewing, going into selective colour adjustment. I usually now set the camera to Daylight, previously I used Auto but a recent morning when it was cloudy I used Cloudy and the greens were all over the place.

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Allen. Yup, they don't listen to me either. Am I imagining it or is the dasher tilting its body slightly toward the sun? (I have seen some species do that routinely.) Excellent head-to-tail sharpness, nice comp, and a clean background. The wing across the head doesn't really bother me because we can see through it - but your image would be even stronger if the wing was behind the head. You might consider toning down the bright spot on the right edge of the frame as it tends to draw my eye. This is very nicely done!