Emerald damselfly

[Jonathan Ashton]

Handheld Canon 50D Canon 800 ISO 500 1/500 sec f5.6
This shot was taken whilst visiting the Norfolk Broads, a pretty common site there but not so common in my part of the country.
All C&C welcome.

[Markus Jais]

Beautiful shot with excellent sharpness. I might crop a tiny bit at the top.

Markus

[Randy Stout]

Jonathan:

I like the colors, reed,exposure.

I am not much of a macro guy, but when I do butterflies, I am usually working in the f/16 -f/20 range to keep them in focus. You did very well to handle your limited DOF with f/5.6.

From a comp. standpoint, I agree with Markus, and I might also crop a bit form the right.

This fellow presents the same framing issues as long tailed birds!

Cheers

Randy

[Nick Palmieri]

A third vote for cropping a bit off the right. Otherwise very nice capture and he looks sharp throughout. The BG and perch look good.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Thanks for the comments, I found the composition a little awkward to determine on this shot so I went for a 4:3 ratio. The f5.6 worked because I was not full frame, I was hand holding and it was a breezy day and I was walking with my family so the tripod was not very practicable hence ISO 800, lower ISO makes a BIG difference on the 1.6 canon sensors. It is not so apparent for screen sized images especially after NR but for A3 prints the difference is clear.

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Jonathan. You're getting really good at these hand held shots! Excellent overall sharpness and a nice background. Very well done!