I have attempted a few shots of the “fly”, or at least I think it is a fly, and got a few that were okay. He is rather small, maybe a quarter inch long, and he hovers (I really want a good shot of him doing that), and gets nectar. After he has collected nectar, he finds a place to sit awhile and blow bubbles. Today I got this shot, and I can see the tiny bubble right well, with some refractions in it. Comments and critiques are welcome, and if anyone can ID it, that would be super great as well.
Taken with Canon 5D Mark IV, Canon 180 mm macro lens and 31 mm extension tube on mono pod with Wimberly MH-100 gimbal head. Settings manual except ISO (auto), f7.1, 1/250, ISO 100. Edited in LR (basic highlights, shadows, contrast) and cropped down to about 70% of full frame, Topaz AI Clear and NIK.
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Shirley, “wow”, I can’t imagine anything I would change. The detail you have gotten is amazing. I can even seen the little “hairs” that are protruding from his “snout.” The composition is spot on and love the soft green/yellow colors. Truly an outstanding photo. One I would love to hang on my wall. Very nicely seen and executed.
WOW indeed! Such great detail and a fascinating capture with wonderful color and tonalities! Extra points for doing it from a monopod. My only though would be to wonder about cropping a bit from the top, even halfway to the back wingtip, to bring even more attention to the subject.
Thank you, Linda and Diane. Diane, I almost did crop it as you suggested. I think I like to not crop below 70%. Anyway, I have made the crop to where I think it should be. What do you think?
Shirley, this looks great, with excellent details in the fly and it’s bubble along with an overall very warm and pleasing set of colors. Your crop looks good. Limiting how much you crop does depend on what you think you’ll do with a photo. Good luck getting one in flight.
Shirley, this is a great image! Sharpness is right on. Love the bubble. Cropped image looks much better compositionally. Great details also. Colors on the bee and the flower and background are complementary and well managed.
This is an amazing photo Shirley. Insects do things no one would ever think of. The photo image is very sharp, even the reflection is the drop shows something there
