common-darter-teneral-male, a photo from Nottinghamshire, England

Photographer's Note

Well folks it must be summer the Common Darters (Sympetrum striolatum) are finally with us. though the weather has been cool very cloudy and wet here in the UK.
This is a male who is about half way through his period of maturing into a sexually active male from crawling up a reed stem and emerging from his larval stage. He is about 55mm long in the body and a little wider in the wings, eventually he will darken to an orange/red at which point he wil find himself a spot on the bank of a pond or slow moving river to hold as breeding territory waiting for females to turn up later in the day mating darters.We can expect to have them with us in a mild autumn right into November, we saw our last on 5th nov. last year, they seem to be able to operate in temperatures as low 10 deg C. which is cool for a dragonfly.
This on was taken inthe middle of a field of grass being grown for hay, about 5 fields away from the nursery pond, so may appear with us later or go to any one of the many small field ponds there for the livestock to drink from.
Adjustments. NOT A LOT
crop off right side to make it square and sharpen edges + edit -fadeback to 50% only
save to web 197.5K Post to TE
I really hope you like this one, as I feel it is a far superior picture to the Green Bug you gave me lots of points for, well thats my opinion?

mogens-j, milloup, rabani, Burnham ha puntuado esta nota como útil.

Critiques | Translate

mogens-j (56) 2004-07-05 12:11

Yes, it is summer though it has been raining cats and dogs most of the day here in Aarhus. It could not keep me home so I had the luck to get a couple of shots of one too.

Great picture Robert - very sharp and colourful as usual.

milloup (1829) 2004-07-05 15:35

It's great to see them back, I also saw the first darter around here just yesterday + saw more today just before the deluge set in ;-))
Crisp and sharp capture with very good DOF, lots of details and good light.

rabani (9645) 2004-07-06 2:15

You definitely have a way with insects in getting most of them, up close and personal as well as keeping them still long enough. You know Rob, you ought to start a coffee book on insects with your collections.

cdewet (0) 2004-07-06 13:40

Robert. the clarity is very good thru'out the body, & even on the wings. It would have been nive if the Gb was just a bit further away to be more OOF, but it doen not really distract from this guy.

Burnham (2428) 2004-07-08 10:51

i've been gone for to long from your shots, there are alot I havn't seen. I don't know what it is about dragonflies but they are so captivating, can't stop staring, this one is very sharp and the bright green looks perfect behind it.