My first dragon, critiques appreciated.

[pathoulihan1]

I was psyched to finally shoot my first dragonfly, it definitely posed nicely, let me know what you think!

 

[jrice12]

#1, #2, #4 and #5: You have to get a handle on your background! There is too much coherency there (even though it is somewhat out of focus) for me to fine the wings and the subject begins to blend in. DOF is too great for that background.

#3 is getting closer! Compare the background of this to the others.

Harsh light hurts with this. Be careful of blowing the hightlights (easy to do with direct sunlight). With dragonflys, they sit still sometimes, so maybe a small, handheld, diffuser might help?

Sometimes the focus appears to be more on the body than the head. Do you manually focus or auto?

 

[cgipson1]

Stop down for better depth of field.. F4 to F8 on your Sony. Go to ISO 400 or higher if need be to keep the shutter speed up, IQ should still be fine...

How far away were you from the Dragon? If you were close to it.. at the 2.8 / 3.2 aperture you were using, I am surprised the background is not more blurred. Also stay away from full zoom.. try no more then about 4/5's of the max, as this camera appears to be soft at full zoom (per some reviews I scanned)

I would use the spot metering capability your camera has, if you are wanting to use the AF on it. OR work on manual focus and get those eyes as sharp as possible.

As JRice mentioned, be aware of the background also. I haven't tried that type of shot with that type of camera... so don't really have any detailed tips for you. Couldn't really find anything useful for that camera in a quick google either...