Mission accomplished, a photo from Aarhus, West

Photographer's Note

In all likelihood this is the same male migrant hawker as in the picture titled "Almost Mile High". The photo was taken some 5 minutes after the mating ended, when I went looking for the female laying her eggs in the rushes along the brook. One of the favourite egglaying places is a small tributary brook about 50 meters upstream from the bigger brook where the mating took place, and I spotted this fellow as soon as I got to the place after seeing the couple fly off in exactly that direction. I had hoped to find the female, too, but that would perhaps have been hoping for too much in one day.
This chap was sitting calmly rubbing his head a little and turning his head from side to side. He didn't seem to mind my presence in the least. To get the picture I had once again to wade into the brook and stand in 20 cm of mixed water and silt. Down here the brook is narrower, but the bottom is trecherous, as some places are deeper than others (above rubber boot level) and the silt will pull your rubber boots off if given half a chance, so caution is needed when moving around.
From this angle you can clearly see the marking identifying the species as a migrant hawker (aeshna mixta); the yellow-white T-shape on his "bottom".
Treatment: No crop, this is the full frame. Colours +5, Contrast +5, USM, resize and upload.

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Critiques | Translate

vkbhaskar (181) 2003-09-27 19:10

Nicely captured.
Although If you had a true macro lens on a SLR you could have successfully blured the background.
But this is not bad also.

RobBrown (1797) 2003-09-27 19:11

What will we do for a good pic Eh. OK then Bente this is really a rarther good picture IMHO :0)))#. all it needs to be perfect is to lighten just the end ot the tail, either select the area and then lighten or use the dodge tool set at a low level. notes are full and informative and spot on.
A VERY BIG NICE ONE

kikin (334) 2003-09-27 20:09

Very well acomplished macro shot in simple composition and decent DOF. I like tail color pattern though. Dragonfly is one of my favorite insects.

papagolf21 (152607) 2003-09-28 3:51

Une macro de trčs haute qualité. La netteté, le piqué, les couleurs ; un ensemble qui confčre une image ŕ insérer dans les livres de science.
Macro of very high quality. Clearness, piqué, colors; a unit which confers an image to be inserted in the books of science.

cdewet (0) 2003-09-28 7:51

Bente, a very pleasing compsition once again and a lovely dragonfly. If you can use a polariser filter, it will get rid of the highlights on the wings, rendering your picture stronger. Try shooting at as wide an F-stop when you get the dfly on this level plane, then you will blur-out the background and accentuate the dfly, which should be in focus all over.

roconnell (327) 2003-12-22 0:55

Incredible detail and the DOF is ok for me. The dragonfly in all his splendor stands out quite nicely becuse the detail in his wings contrasts well the the verticle lines of the foilage.