So this pic has some explaining to it. I am not a dragon fly whisperer and cant speak to them to ask them to pose, etc. I came home one day and found this little fella on my door step. Dragon flies seem to go into slow motion as they begin to die. They also quickly lose their colors when they do pass on. When I saw this little guy and saw how vivid his colors were I thought I would take advantage of his lathargic behavior and photograph him in my studio. Talk about a mad wife. When she found out I used her dining table center piece, the lilacs, as a pedastool for the dragon fly she had a few colorful words to say to me! =). My studio had been set up already from a prior shoot and I only needed to grab my camera and set up the shot. It turned out nicely I must say, so I thought I would share. This was taken a while ago before winter came around. Take care, Scott

Hey Scott,

That is a lovely shot. My one critique is that I find the strands of grass below the Dragon Fly, which I find a bit distracting.

James

LOL, and I think the grass strands add a lot of interest. I think they compliment the veins in the dragonfly's wings. The thing (very very minor) that I find distracting is that his front foot is off the flower. Isn't that weird, the minute things we notice? Very nice photo.

Diana

LOL - 100%. Having said that, it is really quite lovely, and I am not sure I would have thought to do this.

There is a great Far Side cartoon where this scientist finds this last butterfly and says to his colleage (this is a paraphrase), "Oh my, the last of its kind. It is so beautiful. Howard, grab the ether."

James

PS Just noticed - "Talk about a mad wife. When she found out I used her dining table center piece, the lilacs, as a pedastool for the dragon fly she had a few colorful words to say to me! =)."

LOL...It was quite clever...and personally, I think wifey should be pleased.

That's quite the nice shot. The lighting works well and I like the black background also.