Showing posts with label bee fly. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bee fly. Show all posts

Thursday, April 22, 2021

Insects in flight

Now we have lots of insects in the garden, I am returning to last year's project of getting insects in flight. The female Hairy Footed Flower Bee in the first image is in a perfect position with diffuse background (green bin!!) but has not extended its tongue forwards for the characteristic pose of this species distinguishing it often from the Early Bumblebee in the second image. Various shutterspeeds from 1000th upwards - the Beefly in the penultimate image was a 6,400th of a second and still not completely stopped the wing movement. The final image used flash to freeze the motion.

Tuesday, March 30, 2021

Bee Flies

The warm sunshine yesterday brought out the Bee Flies and several other flies and insects in the carden. The bright directional light late in the afternoon made photography difficult but produced this wonderful shadow.

Sunday, April 19, 2020

Progress (?) on Capturing Insects in Flight

I am still perservering with capturing the many hovering insects in the garden at the moment. The Bee flies are the easiest to photograph as they are inquisitive and will come progressively closer. These are taken at 1/1000th second for the first three images 1/4000th for the next four with the last one at 1/250th; all with flash (separate flash gun on camera). The shutterspeed is not making that difference - more the angle at which the wings are caught as they are relatively slower as they rotate past the midpoint and at the extreme points of the figure of eight.

Wednesday, April 1, 2020

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))
 

Thursday, March 26, 2020

Insects Active in the Warmer Temperatures

Yesterday was the first day in my garden and on my local walk that I have recorded a significant number of insect species active from the mating Harlequin ladybird, ichmeumon wasp, Andrena solitary bee, Marmalade hoverfly, Bee fly, Juniper Shield bug (a new one for me), Large Red-tailed Bumblebee to the Hairy -footed Bee (a favourite)
 

Saturday, March 30, 2019

East Carlton Park Leicestershire

 This Country Park has a heritage centre which contains models and historical information about the Corby Steelworks and large areas of meadows, ponds and woods. I took a walk round the park looking for insects on a warm sunny morning and taking some infrared snaps.



Ann Miles Photography - My Favourite Images of the Past10 years or so