Dragonfly (Widow Skimmer)

[redrew]

Canon 30D, Canon 300mm + 1.4x, 1/200 @ f6.3

This image has the shallow DOF plight of Dragonfly photography in that the tail is in focus while the forward wings and thorax are a little soft.

[Bobobird]

It is hard to get an entire dragon in focus unless you do focus stacking or a very narrow aperture like f16 or f22. Normally then a flash is needed for fill in. From you angle probably more so.

[redrew]

Bobo you are certainly correct that stacking and merging images is a very good way to get the entire Dragonfly in focus. However for me Dragonflies do not sit still very long unless caught early in the morning when less active. I have not been very successful with flash and small aperture unless the Dragonfly is very small or the Dragonfly is exactly parallel with the lens as above. With the ISO increased to permit the small aperture, then noise comes into play (at least with my older Canon cameras). However one cannot beat a very small Dragonfly for proper focus, see image added. This one is less than a centimeter long.