Longhorn

[Steve Maxson]

This long-horned beetle is a White-spotted Sawyer. The adults feed on twig bark and leaf petioles, but the larvae burrow through the wood of dead and dying conifers. I like the pose and the apparent eye contact, but wish the stick didn't have a squared off end. I would also point out that this image somehow picked up a goodly amount of saturation (especially in the greens) during the downloading process. :confused: 40D, Canon 180 f/3.5 macro, 1/6 sec, f/16, ISO 400, tripod, mirror lock, cable release, macro twin flash set at 1/32 power for fill. Comments are welcome.

[Don Lacy]

Stephen, Very cool looking beetle well composed with he diagonal line of the branch and the placement of the Longhorn in the frame.

[denise ippolito]

Steve, I like the composition with the long curved lines of it's "horns"? Nice clean BG and details look good.

[Julie Kenward]

Wonderful composition, Steven! That antenna gave you just the right amount of negative space on the left to perfectly frame your subject. Great eye contact as you mentioned and the detail and DOF in the image is well done.

I'm not sure if it's the metallic look to the bug or the level of sharpening but it feels a little oversharpened to me - again...might just be the bug.

As for the greens...if you created the image in camera raw and use Adobe CR to process your images, go to the hue/saturation/luminosity adjustment and drop the saturation by 5-8 points and then increase the luminosity of the greens by 5-10 points. It tends to lighten/brighten those greens so they aren't so overpowering.

[Steve Maxson]

Thanks for the comments folks.

Julie, I'll have to try your tip re the greens and see if that helps. :)

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Excellent composition Steve. OUtstanding macro work. Those antennae look very impressive and hold the fort down within the frame! :)