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Red-veined Darter Male


Red-veined Darter Male
Photo Information
Copyright: Ivan Kruys (Argus) Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 3824 W: 190 N: 11393] (35107)
Genre: Animals
Medium: Color
Date Taken: 2008-11-15
Categories: Insects
Camera: Canon 400D, Canon EF 300 f4L + Canon 1.4 converter
Exposure: f/7.1, 1/1250 seconds
More Photo Info: [view]
Photo Version: Original Version
Date Submitted: 2008-11-27 22:51
Viewed: 566
Points: 72
[Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note
Red-veined Darter (Sympetrum fonscolombii)
Swedish name: Vandrande ängstrollslända

This is a mature male. Apart from the red veins on the wings one of the characteristics of the species is the bluish underside of the eyes.

The Red-veined darter is often common in many parts of the Mediterranean but rarer further north. It is the only European species of darter that ranges south to the warm parts of Africa and Asia. Its Swedish name means 'wandering meadow drangonfly' which refers to its tendency to stray far. Some have been recorded in Sweden! Darters are called 'meadow dragonflies in Swedish.

We visited a beach about 3 km (nearly 2 miles) from our hotel. It was very windy, a prevailing N. wind blowing off-shore. Behind the thorn bushes there were lots of these darters hovering in the lee of the wind to settle briefly and take off when disturbed by a gust of wind.

I had to reduce the DOF in order to have a high enough shutter speed to cope with the wind.

When we returned a few days later their numbers were drastically reduced and we saw only the odd one. We wondered where they laid their eggs. The whole area was totally devoid of water: no ponds, streams and hotel swimming pools were out of the question. The only explanation I could think of was a sewage treatment plant about 2 km away, the less polluted settlement ponds being a possible habitat. We couldn’t enter it but saw some birdlife through the fence, including a shrike that could be interested in the insect life.

You can see Ulla’s recently posted shot of a female from the same area.
siggi, Royaldevon, horia, boreocypriensis, eng55, matatur, marhowie, zulfu, bahadir, xTauruSx, crs, nglen, Gert-Paassen, jaycee, eqshannon, rousettus, Pearl, cataclysta, ramthakur, jconceicao, fiyo, valy67 has marked this note useful
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Discussions
ThreadThread Starter Messages Updated
To boreocypriensis: MatingArgus 2 11-28 01:27
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Critiques [Translate]

  • Great 
  • siggi Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1380 W: 56 N: 4759] (16364)
  • [2008-11-27 23:06]

Hello Ivan,
Great shot, very good POV and pose. Sharpness,details and colors are excellent.
Very well done .
Best regards Siggi

  • Great 
  • batu Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1060 W: 290 N: 3953] (13364)
  • [2008-11-28 0:05]

Hello Ivan,
due to high sharpness and most appropriate background, the dragonfly is nicely presented. Its characteristics are
well reproduced and visible. An atractive 'minimalistic' composition without any distractive element.
Best wishes, Peter

Hello Ivan,

This is a fine capture of the darter and thank you for the interesting notes.

I particularly like your composition with the insect following a near diagonal across the frame and being placed off-centre. The neutral b/g allows for the insect to show up well.

Kind regards,
Bev :-)

Wow.. this is lovely!

  • Great 
  • horia Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 2173 W: 220 N: 4384] (14904)
  • [2008-11-28 0:18]

Hi Ivan

This is one very beautiful species and one i haven't seen at all until now in nature :( I hope i'll have better luck next year, during a trip to the southern part of the country.
This is a lovely close-up, with great details on the head and body. You did good to cut the DOF short in order to counteract the wind...at least you got great sharpness on the main elements.
The POV is also nice and shows those typical eyes for this species - part deep red and part light blue.
Wonderful work!

Bravo and TFS
Horia

Hi Argus, splendid dragonfly with fine details and wonderful sharpness, perfect focus and lovely blurry BG, very well done, ciao Silvio

Wow !
Excellent sharpness and well composed macro .
TFS Ivan .

hi ivan,
beautiful composition, great colors and details, good contrast with the plain background. nice image. tfs.
nagraj.v

Hi Ivan, an excellent capture of a male red-veined darter. Nice to see this perfect macro after Ulla's posting. After a female and male capture of this pretty d-fly, i think it would be nice to upload a "love wheel" position:) What do you think about this?:)
Anyway, TFS this beauty and cheers my dostum Ivan,

bayram

  • Great 
  • eng55 Gold Star Critiquer/Silver Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1151 W: 32 N: 1192] (3654)
  • [2008-11-28 1:27]

Hi Ivan,
Very nice capture.POV,colors,sharpness,details,BG and composition are wonderful.
Thanks for posting.

Ciao Ivan,
bellissima composizione con la leggera inclinazione diagonale di questa libellula ripresa nella classica postura con ottimi dettagli, mi piace moltissimo l'ottimo OOF BG con i colori delicati che contrastano molto bene con quelli vividi e saturi della libellula.
TFS.

Hello Ivan,

Excellent sharp picture of this dragonfly. Superb composition. Excellent POV. Great contrast against the very light coloured background. Very good saturated colours for the insect.
Cheers,
Mariki

Such a pleasant close up Ivan, with perfect colour reproduction and fine structural details, especially of the heterogenously faceted compound eye of this Darter against quite an abstract BG. TFS this beautiful composition my friend.
Cheers,
Mehmet

Hi Ivan,
Excellent capture. The color, exposure, and sharp details are perfect :)
Well seen from this light colored BG, I like the POV & comp as well.
Have a nice weekend,
Howard

Witaj Ivan,
A nice capture of this beautiful dragonfly. Very well composed with sharp details. Excellent sharp focus , very beautiful warm colours and nice light.
TFS and best wishes
Alina

  • Great 
  • zulfu Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 1065 W: 0 N: 162] (870)
  • [2008-11-28 7:57]

Hello Ivan
Excellent shot of this pretty dragonly with nice colours, metails and composition.
TFS and G's,
Mehmet

Hello Ivan
Superb macro shot of a red-veined darter in all aspects.
TFS and regards,
Bahadır

  • Great 
  • PeterZ Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 2398 W: 94 N: 5543] (17640)
  • [2008-11-28 10:50]

Hello Ivan,
Excellent sharp-detailed photo in a great composition. The colours of the Darter are splendid. Maybe a darker BG should have been nicer, but you don't have always the choice.
Very good POV.
Regards,
Peter

Hello Ivan, superb close up shot of this beutiful dragonfly.
Details and sharpness are wonderful.
TFS and regards, Deniz

  • Great 
  • crs Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 523 W: 0 N: 920] (3543)
  • [2008-11-28 11:31]

Hello Ivan,

I like the composition of your photo. As there are few elements in the image viewer's attencion concentrates on the insect. This is very well shown in a sharp image and bright colors. There is a fine contrast insect's colors are making with the background.

Thank you for sharing,
Cristian

  • Great 
  • nglen Gold Star Critiquer/Silver Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 2916 W: 34 N: 8651] (32250)
  • [2008-11-28 11:32]

Hi Ivan. A good time to go on holiday to make the season seem longer. I like the simple pose that you have taken this one in . With good detail in the head and body. the bight colours stand out from the plain BG. well done TFS.
Nick..

You and Ulla have a nice weekend.

Hi Ivan,

Good macro shot of this Darter.
Very good bg, dof and sharpness.
I like the pov.

Gert

  • Great 
  • jaycee Gold Star Critiquer/Silver Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 2493 W: 11 N: 6885] (21912)
  • [2008-11-28 13:22]

Hi Ivan,

A marvelous capture of this Red-veined Darter. I love the pose on the twig. The head and body are shown in fine detail and with beautiful colors. Wonderful position of the wings. Lovely background and composition.

Jane

Very traditional pose but exemplary in notations.. Your teaching are well conceived and thought out Ivan. You are an educated man passing along some super information pro bono!
bob

merhaba Ivan,
S. fonscolombii is one of the most common species here. But I cant manage to take it as much as yours. This is really great with, focus, POV/OOF, colors and lighting. Nicely composed. Also I visited Ulla's several days ago. It is also great.
teşekkür ederim dostum, have a nice weekend, with great shots.
Ahmet

Hello Ivan

Excellent DOF and POV.
The sharpness and focus are sharp.
Amazing details,like the tiny hairs on the legs.
Lovely natural,rich colours.
The OOF BG is super.
Great job.
TFS

Wolf

Lovely capture of this colourful Darter Ivan.
Good lighting and lots of detail clearly seen.
Nice work.
TFS
Steve

  • Great 
  • Pearl Gold Star Critiquer/Silver Workshop Editor/Silver Note Writer [C: 85 W: 25 N: 45] (137)
  • [2008-11-29 0:54]

Hello Ivan,

This is a beautifulled composed picture with a nice POV. Excellent sharpness and focusing. The details are crisp and clear, nice BG and lovely tones and natural colors. lovely notes too. :-) TFS.

Pearl.

Hi Ivan
Razor sharp image. Nice POV, great diagonal composition. Aslo perfect blured background
Very good job
TFS
Krzysztof

  • Great 
  • cako Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 545 W: 0 N: 735] (3213)
  • [2008-11-29 2:45]

Hi İvan
very good sharp and detail
very nice colors and composition
well done.

First rate picture of a Red-veined Darter, Ivan. Your camera settings turned just right for this picture. The subtle colours on different parts of the subject are precisely recorded and the details too are perfect.
I have already seen Ulla's picture of the female and now I am fully wise on the species.
Thanks and best regards.

Hello Ivan,

Fantastic capture.
Focus, sharpness and colours are excellent.
Good composition.

Hi Ivan,
this one is beautiful, thanks.
Now I understand the post of Bayram today ;-)
You captured this fantastic male, Ulla the nice yellow female, we all should make a perfect book of nature and animals.
Just perfect one here, thanks
Sabine - wishnugaruda

  • Great 
  • Mana Gold Star Critiquer/Silver Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1899 W: 36 N: 5579] (18518)
  • [2008-11-29 10:34]

Hi Ivan,
Wonderful shot of this Red-veined Darter with such lovely colours and details. Very impressive sharpness and you have captured a classical pose here. Excellent DOF, POV and composition.
TFS.
Sumon

  • Great 
  • fiyo Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 987 W: 5 N: 2762] (10618)
  • [2008-11-29 10:35]

Hello Ivan,
Very nice close up.POV,lighting,details,colors,exposure and framing are wonderful.TFS

  • Great 
  • joey Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 2001 W: 226 N: 6845] (24727)
  • [2008-11-29 13:17]

Excellent shot of this Red-veined Darter.
The colours are really eye-catching.
Superb sharpness and clarity.
Nice lighting.
Great composition.

Well done!
Joe

Hello Ivan

Excellent macro, nice composition and color.

Regards,
Jose Luis.

  • Great 
  • valy67 Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1880 W: 59 N: 2915] (8733)
  • [2008-12-17 23:47]

Hello Ivan !
I LOVE red dragonflies, and this one is a wonderful shot ! Sharpness, details, exposure, colors, composition, POV, everything is wonderful, and then this beautiful soft and blurred BG - it goes along very nicely with the dragonfly's red color. Very well done !
Valerie.

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