A dragonfly (or some such creature...)

menthel

menthel

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Jim
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This was my first outing with a borrowed macro lens (the 60mm canon in this case). It was very good fun and I am now after my own macro lens! C&C welcomed, as would an ident too!

 
hi Jim

Not bad for a first go, especially as you used a 60mm macro, which must have meant being vey close the the damselfly. The subject is a male Ciommon Blue Damselfly. It looks like you have the head and thorax in focus with a great separation from the background. The abdomen isn't sharp though. Try to get the damselfly's body as parrallel as possible with your camera's back, that way you will maximise dof. F8-F9 should be OK.
 
A Lovely capture of a Enallagma cyathigerum ~ Common Blue Damselfly
 
Can't ID it but....

I can offer some C+C...

Colours great, detail great - the head looks nice and sharp (photographically) but I find there is too much space above the beastie that is adding nothing to the image and the stick/twig bottom left is also a major distraction :(

I think both could be cured by some judicious cropping, or maybe some cloning for the stick if cropping doesn't work!

I do like the texture of the bg but there's just too much of it for me :)
 
Thanks all. Some great tips and an ID too. You are right about being close, I was very close indeed! I will be looking for a ~100mm lens for myself. The thing that surprised me most, even despite some reading, was the minute depth of field available. It really made things that much more tricky! I will try the cropping and see how it looks, perhaps stick up another photo. Again, thanks for the quick and useful responses!
 
Its a bluey ;)

Love the detail, the depth of field works really well since you hit the focus totally spot on. What F/ was this taken at?
 
F2.8. I still have not figured out how to maintain right click EXIF on photos on flickr!
 
Cropping it in would help loose the dead space as others have said.

f2.8 is not ideal for any depth of field, f7.1 or f8 is going to give improved results on that score.

For Damselflies, Dragonflies and Butterflies a 300mm f4 is a good choice of lens, it has a minimum 5 feet focus distance, which puts a fair amount of the subject in the frame, whilst giving a nice working distance so you do not scare off the subject
 
Top down record shot with super background colours and agree with the grass across the bottom being a distraction. All in all not a bad effort and some good advice has already been dished out. ;)
 
Thanks Martyn and Alby. I will bear all of your points in mind. I think lens wise a proper macro lens would suit me most first. I am still on the hunt for a birding lens and the 300 f4 has already discounted itself as it doesn't have enough reach. Still, it's nice to know I am on the right lines!
 
I have tried the crop and thought I would give you all a look. I think its better too!

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Thanks. I have recieved my canon 100mm macro now so will need to put that to the test!
 
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