What do you do when the wildlife subject that you are attempting to photograph puts itself in a man-made setting, rather than a more natural environment? That was my dilemma when a Blue Dasher dragonfly (Pachydiplax longipennis) landed on one of the slats of a railing surrounding part of the boardwalk at Huntley Meadows Park, the local marshland where I take a lot of my photographs.
As I looked down the railing at the dragonfly, my eye was attracted to the repeating pattern of the slats, and I decided to try a creative approach to an image using that pattern. I chose camera settings that would give me a relatively shallow depth of field. Then I carefully composed the shot so that some other slats would appear in the background in a blurry form, but the one on which the dragonfly perched would be in sharp focus.
Although I generally prefer a more natural setting for my wildlife subjects, I think I managed to achieve a pretty cool effect that was relatively close to what I had in mind. I especially like the detail that I was able to capture of the weathered metal slat in the foreground (click on the photo to see a higher resolution view).
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Mike Powell 
Fabulous photo yet again. I am amazed that the dragonflies settle long enough for you to think about settings and composition.
Thanks. It’s hit or miss with dragonflies. Some of them never seem to land and others seem very skittish. Sometimes, though, one of them will perch on an object and stay there for a while. Only in those circumstances do I have the luxury of thinking about composing a shot.
I like it!
I love the depth of field in this one.
Thanks. When photographing flowers, I tend to think more of depth of field, but it was nice to have the chance to do so with an insect in this case.
Yes that definitely works well especially with the repeating pattern.
You mean you couldn’t convince the dragonfly to move to a more suitable location for his portrait? lol.
Very well done, whatever the location!