Red dragonfly

[deetheturk]

Red Veined Darter-Red Dragonfly! This guy landed at the side of the pool. C&C welcome

Cheers David

[Clive Kirby]

Nice close up. I like it. He does seem a little dark given the light direction, but that might be my laptop screen.
Clive

[Wavelength]

...and you had the added advantage of a diagonal mark; well done

[deetheturk]

Thanks Clive for commenting,iv'e looked back on the other images from that day and they are all the same,to me it looks ok,i think lol.

[deetheturk]

Cheers Nandakumar,i aim to please

[wilgk]

Lovely, I spent some time in Broome WA this year and was often to be seen lurking around the pool awaiting the right moment to see and snap a dragonfly, we have various colours a lovely blue, but also a red and the red one was a more skittish variety to the point where other guests were asking me by the end of the week, have you got the red one yet?
I will fish some images out to share later.

[Andrew76]

Nice shot, David. I love the detail, and colour.

[deetheturk]

Thanks Kay,yes like you say they are very skittish,this was taken with a 70-200,I was taking pics of the grand kids playing in the pool when this guy turned up! I will look forward to your images

David

[deetheturk]

Thanks Andrew,cheers for commenting

[Geoff F]

Male Red-veined Darters are quite a deep red; females are more yellowish ochre.

There should be a patch of pale sky blue colour behind the eyes and on the thorax sides. But unfortunately that area is in shadow so this isn't visible.

Not a species which I have ever seen in real life though; they are just occasional migrant visitors to the UK.

The only thing that I wonder about with this photo is whether a 5 x 4 ratio crop to reduce the foreground might be worth trying?

[IzzieK]

We have the blue and black variety here...I haven't seen any reds yet. That is very nice and sharp and I like the angle of your shot.

[deetheturk]

Cheers again Geoff for the detailed info,I never noticed if it had any blue on it,they are quite common here in summer so will try and get a closer shot then As for the crop I've actually added some foreground into this shot as we're are always being told to give the subject somewhere to move into?

David

[deetheturk]

Thanks Isabel,we get beautiful deep blue ones here but I've not managed to snap one yet

[Clive Kirby]

It must be my screen then. I should stop being so lazy and use the computer and not the laptop.

[pnodrog]

As for the crop I've actually added some foreground into this shot as we're are always being told to give the subject somewhere to move into?

David

Because the dragonfly is at a diagonal I think you could remove the foreground to about the top of the left hand out of focus patch in the plaster or even enough so the water and pool edge meet in the corner. It should still leave enough room in front of the dragonfly for it not to look to cramped.(anyway rules are made to be broken) Lightning the darker shadow tones would reduce the harshness of the lighting.

Everything else is just about perfect.

[deetheturk]

Thanks L.Paul,I will have a go at your suggestions later

Cheers David

[deetheturk]

L.Paul,is this any better?

Cheers David

[chauncey]

Yes, in that the crop looks better. No, in that the critter looks terrible.
Selecting the torso and head only and approaching the HSL of the tail would have served you better. IMHO

[deetheturk]

Thanks Chauncey,in what way is it terrible?all i have done is open up the shadows,as suggested from the first version!

[chauncey]

It looks as if you selected the entire head/tail/and torso and opened all the shadows equally...it would show better if you would omit the tail from the "fix".