After completing my work in the vegetable garden, Jenny called me over to see what landed in one of her dahlia storage containers. A medium sized, freshly emerged dragonfly allowed me to carefully place it in our service berry bush where it hung precariously from a leaf. Backlit and very windy were two conditions that made for a challenging photo-shoot. This one turned out very crisp and I like the bokeh in the comp. What’s your opinion on this shot? I have to hit the books on trying to figure out what species of dragonfly that I photographed. I conferred with an expert on dragonflies and he suggested that this is either a lancet or ashy clubtail. Examination of the striping on the thorax and tip of the abdomen suggests that lancet clubtail is a distinct possibility for this dragonfly.
Specific Feedback Requested:
Pertinent technical details or techniques:
D850 105mm f2.8 Micro (1/100 sec at f13, ISO 1600) Topaz DeNoise AI, Levels, Shadows & Highlights, Brightness & Contrast, Crop for Comp.
Is this a composite? (focus stacks or exposure blends are not considered composites) No
If you would like your image to be eligible for a feature on the NPN Instagram (@NaturePhotoNet), add the tag ‘ig’ and leave your Instagram username below.
Jim, lovely shot overall - great sharpness on the dragonfly (I love f13), and the BG is super. I am a stickler for nature’s imperfections and would clone out that mark on the main leaf. But you maybe prefer nature!
They are so easy to handle at this stage. When we have the great emergence here on the river, I sometimes rescue them if they get into a bad spot and then I get to put them wherever I want for photos. This one is quite lovely. If I could see the front of it I could maybe help with an ID, but my book is specific to the northern Great Lakes area so might not be the best one. The eyes appear to not be touching so it’s probably a clubtail of some kind. Lovely background and details. Ours will probably be late this year so I might be witness to the horde!
