We spent the weekend in a very comfortable AirBNB at Burgh on Bain in Lincolnshire which had large areas of wet meadows that I explored in the early morning. Here a few dew-covered creatures
Showing posts with label Fly. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fly. Show all posts
Monday, May 20, 2024
Tuesday, May 7, 2024
Experimenting with Macrotechniques
I have been experimenting trying to find out how many images I need to stack to produce front-to-back sharpness in my small insect images with around f5.6. I concluded that only 7 of the series of 15 images I traditionally use contain any elements that are in focus for my very small subjects so I have been stacking just those frames and get much cleaner images without haloing. I have now set the stack number to 10 though will still only stack those frames with something in focus. With single shots, I tried high aperture number eg f18 or F22 (last 4 images) but the quality certainly falls off when fully closed down (last image). Lucky to have some great models for my experiments particularly the Tachina fera mating pair mating comfortably in a folded leaf and the Dung Fly exuding a droplet of water which is reflecting the spurge flowers it is resting on.
Tuesday, April 30, 2024
Insects in a Daisy Patch
A selection of insects photographed mainly in a large patch of daisies in my local churchyard including a well-camouflaged Hairy Shield bug. Lots of different nomad bees with some of their Andrena hosts plus a lot of different flies including Greenfly - always a challenge to photograph. Another 'sleeping' Nomad bee this time clasping a daisy petal.
Wednesday, April 24, 2024
Insects in the Rain
With the wet and cooler conditions, most of the insects were resting up on or under leaves or in the grass during the last few days just coming out with the sun. Here a selection - most identified!
Sunday, March 31, 2024
Bee-Grabber Flies and Flower Spider
This Myopa testacea, a Thick-headed or Conopid fly, is also known as a Bee-Grabber as it does exactly that - travels to the top of plants and sits there waiting for a passing bee. It then attaches itself to the bee gaining entrance to its nest and laying eggs in the nest. The Myopa larvae parasitze the bee larvae. These photo-stacked images show how wonderfully adapted it is for this with large upward facing eyes, powerful legs and sharp curved claws. The two head enlargements show the difference between a jpeg from in camera stacking and the same set of images, but the Raw versions processed first in DXO rawPrime 3 and stacked with Zerene Stacker. Final image focus-stacked flower spider.
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