Eeewwwwww!

I was bored one morning at the river and mounted a macro lens and a tele-extender to the camera and went looking for something to shoot.  There is a race of dragonflies down there that are an orangy-red color and, early in the morning before the sun touches the marsh grasses, they can be found resting on grass stems.  Once the sun hits the grasses, you see them fly out over the river in wave after wave.  Its kinda interesting.

Anyway, the trick is to get a non-distracting background.  They can be approached if you move very slowly.  Using a large aperture, in this case f/2.8, nicely blurred the background into a sea of green, allowing the dragonfly to stand out.  The little appendages just under the head remind me of the ones that came out of the chest of the aliens in the recently released movie, "Cowboys and Aliens."