Photos

I hope you all like this one, it is I feel a little special, not you may feel in the general subject, ( on no not another dragonfly) but in the detail for here we see the start of new life, we witness the passing on of the ingredients for life to start again, if you look carefully where her tail joins him there is a white packet being passed to her. I have for tomorrow a pair laying new life.
They are a pair of common darters (sympetrum striolatum) the white patches on his normaly red tail are where the colour has worn off whith probable numberous mattings never seen one with so much white.
Taken on the post and rail fence next to the lake
see yesterdays post.
Ajustments seem to nuberous on this set inspite of the sun you can see the shadows, have had to do the following.
Open and crop to 29.5 X 21 @600dpi
Bightness 37% & contrast +15%
Check levels / Saturation +8%
Apply burn tool to over bright area of her under-side @16% with a very soft brush.
Sharpen tool @40% to his left wing ends and her tail where they join.Unsharp mask @ 139% X 1.9px X threshold of 1
save as PSD to print later, then recrop @ 28.22 X 28.22cm @600dpi
Resize image for web to 800 X 800 px @72 dpi, and save for web @ 197.5K
post to TE