Dragon Flies...

[Manny]

I think I was a bit to aperture happy in these missing focus on the crucial parts...

Cropped the second one down a bit.

 

[icassell]

I've found that it is very difficult to get a pleasing BG AND get focus of the entire DF if I shoot head on. About the only way I'm happy is when I get the bug's body parallel to the sensor. The option, of course, is image stacking.

I like your image #2 -- I don't think the tight crop in #3 works well.