Widow Skimmer, female

[Diane Miller]

Found this one near my osprey nest stakeout. Didn't think I could get enough magnification with the 1DX2 and 400 DO + 1.4X so grabbed the 7D2 and 100-400 which I had ready for emergencies. Easier to hand hold, too, while tiptoeing through the thistles. ISO 400, 1/400 at f/11. I see I was only at 370mm. Might have saved the last step.

Basic LR adjustments and into PS for a little crop top and right, added a squeak on the bottom and some BG cleanup.

[Warren Spreng]

Gorgeous soft colors! Nice and sharp and love the veins in the wings.

[John Robinson]

Spot on Diane.
Like the carity of the veins etc and love the smalll thin perch.
You havde so much variety over there
John

[Jonathan Ashton]

Super shot Diane, well exposed and composed excellent details, DOF good.

[Allen Sparks]

Hi Diane,
Love the DOF with the full dragonfly being sharp. Complimentary BG makes for a lovely image.
Allen

[Nancy Bell]

Love what can happen on the way to the "real" focus of your trip! Great parallel position of the dragonfly to the camera to show all the wing venation details and the body. Nice mottled bkgd, but that one spot above and to the left of the eyes seems a bit over bright.

[Adhika Lie]

WOW! This is very well done. The wings are gorgeous and I love the wispy things attached to the wing. Good job on not startling this beauty!

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Diane. You nailed the head-to-tail and side-to-side focus on this one! Nice smooth background, too. I agree with Nancy about the bright spot to the left of the head as it tends to draw my eye. Should be an easy fix. Very well done!

[Diane Miller]

Thanks everyone! I was too busy to work on the bright spot. I can easily fix it -- will do it on the master file. Nice light this morning -- I'm OUTA HERE!