Widow Skimmer

Howard, I spent three weeks trying to get close to one of these in my yard without success, so I'm jealous.  The colors look great. Tthe details in the eye and thorax are excellent.  The pose and comp. are top notch as well.  Very well done.

Here it is a few seconds later with the flash turned up some, slightly different angle..

I went with the more natural 'less' fill in the original post, but curious which one you prefer?

Howard you do good work. You don't need a critique, you need to tell how you do this so consistently.I prefer the second shot. I would do something about the second eye glint.

Howard, both work nicely for me. Like Phil I lean toward the second one. More so for the flash change there. If you did not mention flash I would have not known. As I do not do this type of photography I can only enjoy work from others such as yourself and take the input as to how it's done overall. This guy has a scary look about him no matter how we look at him.....

Excellent pose, comp, detail, and bg!  I prefer the first version because of the softer lighting.

Howard - Particularly like the angle you have chosen for the shot. I like the original better. In the one posted again, the details in the deep brown patch on the wings are hidden. Original pose also looks as if the dragon is more in control of itself. 

Phil: I made the decision that it didn't matter (the flash-n-eye effect). But in this business every small detail does. I better start getting with the program, ya think it's too late?

Hi Howard--Looks good.  The second shot has better belly details and this type of lighting can be expected around ponds with reflected light.  You could do Shadows and Highlights to bump up the brightness on the belly of the first image.  The pose is nice with one of your outstanding BG's...........................Jim

This is quite the comparison, Howard.  Both getting closer and turning up the flash have added lots of fine details in the Widow's body while the perch and background are only modestly different.  I think the repost is a substantial improvement....yes, removing the flash highlight in the eye is good.
 

The second repost looks best to me, Howard. Excellent DF image with a terrific pose and angle. 

Howard, I like the second post the best, because it shows the left (viewer’s side) wings’ structures. The detail!   Nice angle and pose.

I like the second image better with the more symmetrical wings showing sharper detail  throughout. Also much clearer detail in the body. Flash has worked well, something I have never used on macro - must remember this in future. Graham

You got a nice image Howard...beautiful colour..