Hi Myer. A nice find and good action captured. I like the way the mantis is looking up at us and you have good DOF on the front half of the mantis where it most counts. The light is very contrasty and is not doing you any favors here. You might try to lighten those dark shadows in pp. I would also suggest cropping about 7 cm off the right side to remove the thistle stem - this would focus our attention more on the mantis. You might also run some nr on the background. You captured an interesting pose and I think a few changes will take this one up a couple notches.
A dandy looking photo. I like the nice head on look and a really good view of the power the mantis has. Focus is spot on.
I like the repost best and might add a bit of canvas to bottom as well.
Hey Myer,
Back from Tanzania. Agree that the angle was excellent and great job following Steve's advice on the repost. Perhaps touch over shrpened on the bee.......but minor and an easy tweak. Very nice find and good job overall!
Hey Myer, those tweaks suggested by Steve definitely helped.....only other suggestion I can make is to desaturate the yellows and greens just a bit....when you lightened up the image those colors got a bit overpowering.