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Justin-Disgusting In reply to Nimbue [2019-05-22 10:41:26 +0000 UTC]

I recall seeing this dragon fly perched atop a small twig on the forest floor. There was a beam of sunlight peeking through the leaves which illuminated the dragonfly. I remember having a brief thought that I've taken enough dang pictures of dragonflies, but the lighting was too good to pass up. My setup needs a ton of light, so whenever there is a critter sitting in nice lighting I will try to get a photo regardless of what the critter is. Luckily, I had already adjusted my flash output for the conditions just before spotting this dragonfly, so I only needed to take the shot...

Dragonflies will fly away if you get too close, but I've found a reliable way to approach them by keeping low and keeping arms pressed to the sides of my body. They are also sensitive to the color of clothing, and chances are that I was wearing my lucky red shirt that day. For this photo, I was laying on the ground and crawled up to the dragonfly. Dragonfly mandibles look like a smile from the front, so that was the main constraint in lining up the foreground of the shot. For the background, I was looking to get as much of the brown tree in the shot while avoiding some vegetation to the left (not pictured).

I've been trying to take this exact photo for a couple of years now, and this shot is the latest iteration. My previous attempt was getting closer to my vision, but this shot improves upon the lighting and background. Can't wait to see if I can top this photo in 2019...

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