interesting close up

Colors are nice, but I would prefer a tighter crop on the photo.

Also, what was your intention with this photo? The flower or the dragonfly? Because the dragonfly is slightly out of focus, I assume it's the flower. This creates a little tension I find... my eye gets distracted.

my intention was to show the diversity of life in this backwater wetland. did you notice the other insect thing on the flower? looks like something that left its skin behind.

tension and visual complexity are always part of my images. i tend to nod off when viewing images that are to simple or easy.

i also believe that most people's natural vision is "restless". their eyes constantly move throughout their field of vision, say, when viewing the grand canyon for example. so, in creating my images, i like to include visual "action" to encourage that natural tendency.

visual complexity in an image also requires a viewer to get involved with the image, stay around a liitle longer to check things out, see what's going on and get the brain in gear.

Point well taken. I guess it depends on what school of thought you come from. I do like simplicity over complexity (hmmm being a programmer, seeing nice efficent, uncluttered code is great).

But I understand your point, and I regret not noticing the "extra skin" left on the flower itself. Humans do have a "restless" stare, we tend to focus onto various objects (one of which I missed sadly), and then move on.

I must then ask again, did you plan on having the dragonfly out of focus? My eye did catch him, but not being able to focus on something I do recognize visually hurts me as the viewer, more.

Going to try to broden my eye a little more.

while i tend to be of the f64 school, it was inevitable that the dragonfly be a bit soft. i used all the dof i could under circumstances - handheld camera in a solo canoe with my 70lb dog under hazy light.

i do think that the softness of the dragonfly and the bg enhance the general "softness" of the scene - the flower, the soft light light and the subtle colors.

ps we're only about an hour apart, you should to stop by for a little nature sometime.

Hey again,

You are right, if I've got questions, you've got answers hehe.

Yeah, I can understand you, depth of field reduces by 1 stop handheld, reduces 1 stop with a canoe and finally reduces one more with the 70 lbs dog in it. I'm used to land or wading in the water with my tripod.... canoes are different beasts.

You know, the more I'm looking at that photo, the more I'm getting into it. It's growing on me.

Yep, Adirondaks are rather close by to Montreal. Might come down if I have some time off from work in the winter time. I've been to Saranac Lake once before, was enjoyable (although rainy). I've got a canoe and kayak as well.

I've stopped shooting from my canoe since 2 summers ago with my Canon old EOS-3 + 100-400 mm IS lens mounted on a tripod........ my friend flipped my boat, down went the gear into the water... $6000 CAN drowned.. that more than ruined my weekend.

This is interesting to me---it appears as if the dragonfly is waiting for lunch to drop down. Would consider a crop off the left to diminish the effect of the oof water lily stem. The drama is with the flower and the bugs.

if you would like to know the rationale for the crop (in camera), i'd be happy to give it. don't want to "diss" your critique by posting unwanted information.