Blue dasher

John, I like the color and the pose. I like the detail in the wings, but do think the head is a tad soft. Thanks for sharing.

Typical pose indeed John! Beautiful specimen, I only wish for a more even BG as the OOF lines are a little distracting. When you say cropped to 20% do you mean this is 20% of the original frame? That would be quite a severe crop.

Great color and background John. Classic pose.

Vincent,

Yes 20% of the original frame, yep way more than I should. But until I can afford a good piece of glass with longer reach (and compatible with a tc) I'll be stuck with the 300.

Hi John,

Nice colours here and that's certainly a pose I've seen before so I'll go along with your description of it being "typical"! Given the amount of cropping here, it would seem like you have quite a bit of canvas to work with - I'd suggest "shifting" the dragonfly a little to the right in the frame - pretty much off-centre as much as it is now but to the right (if you know what I mean). This assumes there isn't something distracting in the background if you do.

While I would agree this is an extreme crop, I really don't see anything wrong at all with doing that. Cropping has ALWAYS been done and with digital it's self-limiting - crop too much and it shows (and you have fewer options in what you can do with the cropped image than the equivalent shot with more pixels dedicated to the subject). Also, when it comes to wildlife photography it can be an economical way to level the playing field a bit with those who have the big and expensive super-telephotos! I know some who liken it to "cheating", but personally I just don't get that...sort of like saying using a zoom is cheating or shooting with anything but a 50mm lens is cheating...

Thanks for sharing this...cheers...

Brad

Brad,

Thanks for the comments and your words of encouragement. This is such a great site, especially for relatively new photographers like myself. I've only been part of the group for a week now and have received several good tips and pointers that I feel will improve my images.

John

Such a cute little guy. I love the background. You did a great job with your cropping, He is not centered specifically, although I do hope you saved the original file should you decide on a different crop at a later date.