Hi everyone, I am excited to be a part of this group and getting to know all of you :)

Some additional information on this image that I neglected to include in my submission:
-This is a Chinese Mantis (tenodera sinensis) preying upon some sort of bumblebee (bombus sp.)
-I took this image in my garden in the Boston area in Massachusetts, USA.
-I processed this image in Lightroom, my edits include cropping, removing a white flash spot on the mantis' eye, and masking various elements for lighting and color adjustments.

I picked up photography about a year ago and have a lot to learn. I initially took photos only so I could submit them to iNaturalist, so just tried to ensure that the organism of interest was clearly and accurately depicted. I've only very recently begun to think more about the artistic side of things. I look forward to any suggestions you all have!

  Posted: 10/05/2026 17:15:04

Hi Jenna, and welcome to our group!

I like your photo, and would point to the curved leaf top left, and vignette on other corners, that push our eyes to the subject - your cropping is good. The mantis' eyes are bright which gives punch to the picture, and the sharpness is excellent. Focus is bang on, and the depth of field is appropriate, in my view. An excellent result!

Nice to see another OM-1 user!
  Posted: 10/07/2026 06:41:37

Hi Jenna, welcome to the macro group. Super sharp image, and yes gruesome but a great action shot. Good job! One minor comment, I see Stuart's point on vignetting, although to my eyes the right bottom corner is a bit dark.   Posted: 10/15/2026 21:18:52

My goodness! What a great macro image! You definitely have immediate impact and a story in this. I agree that the right corner is a bit problematic, but not sure how you could remove it without losing some of the framed feel. If you cropped on the righthand side up to the light area of the mantis' body? You can certainly try to raise the shadows on that Lower Right corner, and I hate to suggest this...its a definite no-no if you plan to submit it to an exhibition in the Nature category, but could you clone the top left corner and flip it around to carefully integrate it into the lower right corner? Then you could vignette slightly on just that one clone corner? Bottom line, I love this image; it feels very intimate to me as a viewer and the lighting emphasizes the subject perfectly!   Posted: 10/18/2026 17:08:55

Welcome to the group! Very nice macro image. The lighting on the face and bee is spot on and really draws your eye to the main subject in the image. The sharpness on the face and bee is perfect and is set off by the soft background. Since the two right corners are dark I'd darken the left side ones to match which would also keep your eye in the center of the image. My eye is drawn to the upper left corner because of the lightness of that area.   Posted: 10/19/2026 01:31:11

A very interesting action shot well captured. I might suggest cropping the top and left side to concentrate on the detail of the insects? Lighting the image slightly would also impove slightly what is already a super image! Welcome to the group!   Posted: 10/25/2026 08:09:23