Common darter about to land

[Jonathan Ashton]

Tripod
Camera Model Canon EOS 7D
Shooting Mode Aperture-Priority AE
Tv( Shutter Speed ) 1/2500
Av( Aperture Value ) 8.0
Metering Mode Evaluative Metering
Exposure Compensation -1/3
ISO Speed 800
Lens EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM
Image Quality RAW
Flash Off
AF Mode Manual focusing
AF area select mode Manual selection
Color Space Adobe RGB
Drive Mode High-speed continuous shooting
I got this shot by focussing on the dragonfly when it was at rest, after it flew off I reckoned there would be a good chance it would return so I set the lens to manual focus and left it where it was. As it was about to land I depressed the shutter and voila!
I had to recrop slightly for presentation and on reflection maybe I could have applied a little more noise reduction.
All C&C welcome.

[Satish Ranadive]

Excellent action captured.I like the wing blur,nice details on eyes and beautiful perch to land.

Regards,
Satish.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Fantastic Jonathan! You captured an excelent wing position. I find that if you freeze the action too much.....looks a bit unnatural. I would like a bit more room above......but all in all a really nice image!

[LindaHarden]

I like it very much... good background. the shape of the plant and direction the dragonfly is going make this very well balanced looking to me.

[Bob Miller]

Johnathan...excellent capture! The bg is well handled and I love the perch. i will have to try your approach!TFS

[Jonathan Ashton]

Thanks for the C&C everyone. When I re cropped I added canvas to the top because the wing had been clipped. I added canvas and filled in using content aware and then I cloned around the wing so that it no longer went out of the frame. I didn't mention it previously becasue I wanted to see if you had sensed that I had done something there.

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Jonathan. Excellent action captured via good planning! Your work at the top of the frame is quite seamless and well done - I agree with Roman that if you added a little more canvas at the top your image would be even better!