CalevPhoto

The Hoverfly

Most of us are very familiar with the hoverfly.  Their flight patterns are very recognizable and have flustered generations of photographers attempting to get one in flight.  As they stay in the same place for short periods of time, it is very tempting to try to get a picture of one in flight.  This photographer was tempting by one over the weekend.  Alas, the hoverfly one and I wound up with all of one out of focus picture that was quickly deleted.  Still, I managed  to get a few half way decent ones of the hoverfly landed.

I don’t like the white background at all in this shot, but I had to take what the fly provided.  I tried photographing another two other hoverflies in more photogenic areas but none of the shots turned out.  Note that whenever taking insects on a white background, make sure to dial up the MT-24EX a stop or two.  Otherwise the picture will show up as too dark due to the metering in the camera.  This picture is close to the brightness of the original, but previous shots I took were too dark.

After reading a bit though, I never knew how beneficial these flies truly are.

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Flies, flies, and more flies

While most flies tend to be extremely annoying, they are a boon for us macro photographers.  The reason is they are simply everywhere.  It is not difficult to find a fly, and on some days when it seems I can’t find anything, there’s always a fly there to help.  Of course, with some flies it can be tricky to get close enough to get a shot – especially when you go above 1x.  This is even trickier when the fly is on a leaf and you need to make sure not to bump anything.  For the majority of flies I try to photograph I never get a shot or if I get a shot then it’s not clear.  Some flies only allow me to take a single shot – then they take off.

During a recent outing in the ponds next to my work, I found several flies and managed to successfully photography them.  This is the first one I found.

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Some fly shots from the weekend

Two weeks ago I had the time to take a number of shots outside and had the chance to get two flies (OK, two of them are March flies).  This one looks like it was laughing at me.

Actually the more I see flies up close, the more I want them to stay away from my food.  Flies use their tongues to eat, meaning if they stay long enough on my food and I eat it that I am eating fly saliva – not a pleasant thought.  Two other shots I took that day I was quite happy with.

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My first insect porn shoot

Last weekend for the first time we actually had a brief period of good weather, lasting from Saturday morning to early Sunday afternoon.  In Seattle parlance, this was our “spring”.  Most likely some day in late July or August will be our “summer”.  Given the nice weather, Eitan and Nathan wanted to go outside to collect more ants for their ant farm so of course I obliged.  However, after being outside for a few minutes Eitan pointed to something that made me stop.

Yes, this would be my first opportunity to photograph insect porn.  In particular these were March flies, which in previous posts I have already photographed.  That day the weather must have been perfect for this opportunity, as it did not take long to find more couples in the act.  Naturally I was very excited and rushed to grab my camera – taking several shots only to figure out that I had left my flash card downstairs.  After deciding the shots would come out better with a flash card, I proceeded to take a number of shots of the couple in action.

Therefore if you feel that you will be offended by March flies in various gratuitous positions please do not turn the page. 

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Some new bugs for the year

I always enjoy getting out and taking some pictures of bugs, so I was very happy that during the weekend we had a brief respite from the rain so I could get out and photograph.  The frustrating thing with insect photography is figuring out what I took pictures of afterwards.  Despite the fact that most of my shots are from my backyard, I’m still finding new bugs each time I photograph.  At first things were a bit slow, so I took this picture of a dandelion while looking for interesting critters.

This image is part of a ‘geometry in nature’ series that I am working on, though I doubt it will end up in the final collection.  It came out as I expected, but I haven’t been able to make the yellow stronger and I think the shot is missing some ‘oomph’ in general.

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