Black eyed susans and flies

chrisunderwoodimages

I am experimenting with macros again these days. Usually, due to a lack of what I *really* want by way of macro gear, I end up using one hack or another to get what I want.

The hack of the week is my Olympus E-520, ZD50mm f2 macro, and a Raynox DCR-250 attached to the front of it using a stepdown ring.

I hope you like the images:

Lord Vetinari

Both wonderful shots - Hoverfly Myathropa florea.
Hack works well !
Brian v.

chrisunderwoodimages

Thanks for the reply and comment:)

Here are a couple more from yesterday's walk around the yard.

This first one, at an unmagnified glance, looked like a mosquito or something, but it seems to me that it was a little bit too big, and too dark. The insect was walking up the bark on a rotting stump (there were a few of them there).



This next one was walking along the top of our fence rail. It is truly bizarre. The eye has the usual multiple lens that is expected in an insect, but it seems to have a pupil behind it which tracked my movement somewhat (I noticed it in different spots in different pictures in the series I took of which this is the best.) Does anyone happen to know if that is the norm for insect eyes?

Lord Vetinari

like the 2nd pair of shots too.
#1 is either a small cranefly or a winter gnat i think. #2 is a plant hopper.

The effect of the eyes having a pupil is quite common - almost worried me when I was first photographing bugs. It's just where the light goes straight down the compound eye structure and is not reflected off the surface, so you see a dark patch which is always at right angles to the camera lens.
Brian v.