Unedited jpeg file
Critique Style Requested: Standard
The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
This was taken near Barstow, CA in the Mojave Desert. You may ask why any sane person would be out in the middle of the day, in the middle of the Mojave Desert, in early July, in hundred ten plus temperatures. Don’t ask! You may not get a good answer . . . OK, I blame this stuff on my entomologist son who studies these little fiends. This is a near relative of his favorite group, the velvet ants.
As you can see it was bright, sunlight conditions, the wasp was in deep shade under the very bright mesquite catkin. How do you tone down the almost blown hots spots while bringing up the wasp in the deep shade. The magic of photoshop, dial the highlights and whites way back, the shadows way up, then work on levels and tones, and brightness, etc. until you get something that represents what the critter actually looks like. By the way, these do have a nasty sting, somewhere between a honeybee or yellow jacket and a tarantula hawk or velvet ant.
Specific Feedback
I cropped out some of the foliage on the left and bottom due to my OCD rule of thirds thing, and to put the bright red abdomen right smack in the middle of the frame. Thanks for any comments, observations or recommendations.
Technical Details
Canon 60D, iso 400, f11, 1/250 sec, -1 exp bias, 100 mm macro lens, with flash.