On Thu, 11 Jun 2009 07:52:22 +0200, "MJK" wrote:

"Home" ... protect planet
http://images-piegees.over-blog.com/...-32501655.html


Not too bad.

Though with such a small subject it's a bit lost in all the empty space.
You might have had a little more impact and impression by tightening up on
the subject without losing much in the composition. Much of the beauty of
nature is in the details. (Ever photograph diatoms or snowflakes through a
microscope? You'd know what I mean. This last winter I invented a new
dark-field lighting system just for accenting the intricate crystalline
facets of snowflakes.) The intricacies of the venation in the wings would
have been a good contrast to all the empty space if you had made that a
larger part of the image. Not to mention catching a wider range of all the
intense blues available there. The wings were exposed well and there could
have been lots of fine details to hold and entertain the eye longer.
Otherwise, not too bad.

You could have had a little more impact too by watching your
background--arranging the main subject so it is outlined by one of the
lighter fields in the bokeh. The dark of the intensely-blue wings against
the light. See that large patch of lighter blue just to the left and down
from the damsel-fly behind the brightly-lit leaf? A slight shift in your
vantage-point could have brought that oval out-of-focus area to frame the
main subject like a stage-light, it's shape also mirroring the curvature of
the wings. The lighter leaves too would have then been outlined by the
darker greens. Even better is if you could have found a light bright-green
area in the background to contrast the darker blue wings to frame and
highlight them. Contrasting both in intensity and color. More subject
contrast, more compositional focus (not optical focus), more reason for a
viewer's eye to stay. Pay attention to everything that is in your
camera's FOV even if it is out of focus. The subconscious mind takes it all
in. Beginners and amateurs never realize that the out-of-focus areas in
backgrounds and foregrounds are just as important, if not more-so at times,
than the main subject(s). Maximize the use of it all to keep a viewer's eye
engaged. You can't easily change that in editing, just like when shooting
with a polarizer, this must be done at the time of shooting. Pay attention
to it all before you even think about pressing the shutter.

A good photographer attacks/survives his photography like a person who is
riding out a bad car-accident. Everything is in slow motion, your senses
intensely heightened. In that short period of time that you have to capture
the shot you'll make hundreds of subtle and important decisions on when to
trip that shutter and make it all count. One second can seem like an
eternity to a good photographer because they are assessing everything all
at once. This is what makes the difference between the 99.9999% of all
snapshooter camera owners and the rare few real photographers.

At least this shot beats that other low-level remedial "My best ever!"
damsel-fly posted earlier by some 1st-grade beginner that wasn't even worth
the viewing time. And thanks for not trashing the subject with some
egotistical "LOOK AT MY NAME!" water-mark crap. Any photography that has
ever been submitted to me for approval or inspection was immediately
rejected when they try that remedial beginner's ego nonsense. Like some
kindergartner jumping up and down in his seat, wanting everyone to know
their useless name and never doing one thing worth remembering other than
that. Like "Timmeh!" on South-Park. No difference.