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Red Dragon
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Red Dragon

by Bill Leggett

Gallery: Macro & Close-upPosted June 17, 20186,596 views3 comments
I rarely shoot DF images, so an ID would be much appreciated. In fact it's my first DF post on NPN. I'm guessing it's a Red Skimmer of some sort. I got to Jean Lafitte NP late this morning so this was shot in breezy conditions. It can be quite a challenge there getting a fairly uncluttered framing with the larger critters among all the saw grass and other sedges. As I remember this guy was about 6-7 feet away, so I cropped a bit to simplify it. I used a wide aperture in an attempt to defocus the surroundings. While it's not the sharpest image, fortunately the legs and most of the body and wings were in pretty decent focus. I liked the frontal angle, the warm tones of the subject and perch against the contrasting BG greenery. I did a little shadow/highlight tweaking but no other changes.

7D2 100-400L II @371 on Wimberley I, ISO 400 1/2500 f6.3 and 0.0EV. Full height 3:2 original cropped from sides to 4x5 aspect for comp.

Comments

3 comments
Comment posted by Mark Seaver on June 18, 2018 at 10:45 AM
Bill, this looks good.  You've got good sharpness in the head, body, and front of the wings.  The red stands out well against the nice green background.  Getting more dof in a close up view like this is always a challenge, because it increases the details in the background/surroundings.  How to handle that trade off is an artistic decision, unless you're shooting for an ID guide, where getting all the details becomes important.  This might also look good cropped to square with the df in the right half of the frame.  I'm away from my field guides so I can't help with the ID.
Registered on January 23, 2011, 1103 Posts, 17270 Comments
Comment posted by Richard Sandor on June 18, 2018 at 11:44 AM
Bill: I like the contrast of the DF's reddish orange tones against the background greenery as it makes the DF really pop. The head and legs are in good focus and I think serve as an example that the entirety of the subject need not be in focus for a photo to be successful. Richard
Registered on January 12, 2014, 453 Posts, 1625 Comments
Comment posted by Jim Zablotny on June 18, 2018 at 6:14 PM
Hi Bill,

This is a nice male Needham's skimmer. I like this one, but would like it better if you were able to come in closer.  You might be able to crop it tighter with more on the right side cropped more than the rest. Well done.......................Jim
Registered on January 17, 2004, 705 Posts, 3594 Comments