Does you mood affect how you react to images? When I am reviewing images that I have captured, most of the time I use an analytical approach. I seek to identify the species of my subject and then look at the technical aspects of the photo, such as the sharpness of the focus. Finally I will see if I can improve the composition by cropping the image.
For some images, though, I respond initially with my heart and not my head. I don’t worry about “what” it is and simply enjoy the beauty of the shapes and colors that make up the image. That was the case with this shot of a male Needham’s Skimmer dragonfly (Libellula needhami) that I captured during a recent visit to Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge.
I love the contrast between the orangish-red of the dragonfly’s body and the green background. The shape and texture of the vegetation, which I believe is Eastern Gamagrass (Tripsacum dactyloides), also really grabbed my eye (in part because I missed focus a little and the sharpest part of the image is the grass in front of the dragonfly). The composition is simple and straightforward and is pretty much the way I shot it.
We all like what we like. Most often we don’t even ask ourselves why we like something. I personally find it beneficial to try to articulate why I like something. Words fail me quite often when attempting to describe with words what is primarily an emotional reaction, but I think that the effort itself makes the process worthwhile.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
I often try to share why I like a photo. Sometimes, I just don’t know.
I am with you on that, Dan. It is often hard to explain what makes me like what I like.
Sometimes I respond to an image for reasons I cannot express in words. It just pleases me for some reason or maybe so many reasons that I cannot quite figure it out. That is the great thing with art though that we don’t have to apply logic or analytics to it. We can just respond to the feeling of it or have an emotional interaction with it.
Lovely image Mike. I tend to go with my heart first, then I focus on the details of how the shot was taken. The feeling I get when I look at an image, mine or other people’s is important to me;
the technicalities less so.
I think that you and I are alike in that respect, Chris. I have a friend who often photographs dragonflies with me. He is most interested in getting shots with their entire bodies in focus, which limits his shooting mostly to a few select angles. I am willing to shoot from an angle or with settings that pleases me or that I find interesting, even though I know that only a part of my subject will be in focus.
Love that detailed face as well as the texture of the grass!