There’s something wonderfully natural about this shot: the golden hues of the plant stems, the gentle, diffused light, the ladybird pleasingly positioned according to the rule of thirds. The focus is exactly where it should be (on the eyes and pronotum of the insect) and the aperture (f/5) allows the stems in the background to fall out of focus, preventing them from becoming a distraction.
Damselflies are popular subjects with macro photographers, but many make the mistake of going out in the middle of the day when the insects are warm and active. This photographer has clearly done his research and heading out at first light has resulted in a beautiful picture with droplets of dew coating the damselfly’s body and wings like diamonds.
178 Photographers
793 Images entered
Brief
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**This contest is open to photographers ranked between 1 and 250 in this week’s <a href="https://www.photocrowd.com/photographer-community/">Leaderboard</a>.** Photographing close-up shots of nature is a never-ending joy. Previously unappreciated details are uncovered when we get closer, really look at what’s in front of our camera, and deploy our macro lenses or other macro kit to get around issues of proximity and minimum focussing distances. ‘Nature’ is a broad term, and for the purposes of this contest includes any subject that is not man made.
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