Experiments in Shutterspeed and Insect Flight

With a few bees and flies around in the sunshine, I attempted to get some flight shots and determine how fast the wings were beating. As most of these were taken under a tree canopy with intermittent sunlight, some were taken at iso3200 so are a bit noisy. A lot of room for improvement on focusing! The first five were taken at 1/2000th second and the last three of a Bee Fly in the open at 1/4000th second (all f8, the minimum aperture for100-400 plus 1.4 extender). Even at 1/4000th second, there is still movement in the wings. (Hairy-footed Bee (Anthophora plumipes), Early Bumble Bee (Bombus pratorum), Hoverfly (Platycheirus albimanus), Bee Fly (Bombylius major))