Critique Style Requested: Standard
The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
This was the only bee fly we saw in South Texas at the Laguna Atascosa NWR. Surprisingly there were not too many bugs out anywhere we went, except the mosquitos at the Sabal Palm Preserve. I guess they were still dealing with pretty significant drought conditions last week. Birds were a bit sparse too.
Specific Feedback
This is about fifteen percent of the original frame. I used a telephoto zoom lens with a 1.4 TC, but had to stand back about ten feet to get it to focus. Is the crop big enough for the subject?
Technical Details
Canon 5DMiii, f8, 1/800 sec, iso 400, 100-400/1.4TC at 560 mm.
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- Vision and Purpose:
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I’m glad that you were able to see and photograph this little guy. Sometimes finding insects isn’t all that easy, and then to get them to cooperate so that you can photograph them is another thing. Oh yes, you can count on the mosquitoes to be available though.
Probably would have been better to have had a macro lens for an insect this small. Butterflies and things like that you can uses the 400mm with the 1.4TC. I’m not sure if you have a macro lens or not, or you may not have had it with you, and in that case, you shoot with what you have. However, when you had to crop down to only 15% of the image you are losing a lot of pixels which hurts the details of the image as well. I like his stance on the limb. The BG makes him stand out nicely as well.
This little guy looks great in the smaller image, Ed, but the large crop and probably the focus is starting to show some softness in the larger image, so I certainly wouldn’t try for a tighter crop. When you’re that far away and have a small subject, it can be really difficult to get the focus right where you want it, so I second Shirley’s suggestion of a macro. Given all the people going to mirrorless, you might be able to pick up a Canon 180 f/3.5 pretty inexpensively and it’s a super good lens. Long enough to give the critters a bit of distance but still tack sharp. I’ve used it with a 1.4 TC and it still works very well if you need a bit more distance from the subject.
Thank you @Shirley and @Dennis_Plank, I had my 100 mm macro in the bag, but this bee fly wasn’t having any closer inspection than I got with my bigger lens, and it was pretty dusty out there. Dennis, thanks for the suggestion to look at finding a 180 macro. I didn’t know it would work with the 1.4 TC either.
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Ed: Not much to add to Shirley and Dennis but I will second the motion regarding 180-200mm macro lenses. I have a vintage Minolta 200 macro that can accept TCs that solves the working distance problem. I’m unaware of any 200mm class macros for mirrorless systems in general and Sony in particular. I would buy one in a heartbeat if they made one. I’ve been using my 70-200 with extension tubes and a 2x TC which works pretty well but nowhere near as well as the old faithful 200.>=))>
