Just flies

Lord Vetinari

Some recent fly shots from the garden.

Brian V.

Signal fly Sepsis fulgens (not signalling)





Dolichopid fly




Dance flies mating (Empididae probably Empis sp.)



Dance flies having a disagreement - the female (on her back) has killed and is eating the male



Dung fly bubble blowing



Soldier fly not doing anything

zweiblumen

I wish I had something constructive to say, but all I have is "Wow!"

The Dolichopid fly shot is far and away my favorite. Looks like he's geared up to take on the world. The colors in the eyes and the carapace (don't know if that's the correct term for it or not, the top of the back with the hairs coming out, guess the whole exo would be the carapace) amaze me.

Skippy

Lord Vetinari wrote:

Some recent fly shots from the garden.

Brian V.

Signal fly Sepsis fulgens (not signalling)
Dolichopid fly
Dance flies mating (Empididae probably Empis sp.)
Dance flies having a disagreement - the female (on her back) has killed and is eating the male
Dung fly bubble blowing
Soldier fly not doing anything

Ohhhhhhhhhhhh Lordy Lordy :jawdrop and WOW!!!
Gawwddd Brian you seem to have this never ending supply of bugs

You offering them free food and lodging or what
I love Images #2 & #3 the whole series is stunning.
The detail you capture is truly amazing Brian, I'm guessing you did you stacking technique right

Excellent series yet again from you ........... Skippy
.

drdane

Wow, Indeed!
Great series, Brian! I'd say the Dolichopid fly is my fav - say, what is that thing under the last two segments of its rear abdomen?

I'm guessing from the DOF that you might have done 2 or 3 slices on this one - could you share the particulars? I also assume this was done with your custom flash setup. I would think that thing would scare them off after one shot . . .

Too bad about the male dance fly . . . is this typical post-nuptial dance behavior, or was this just a gal in a bad mood who mugged an innocent bystander?:D

The other thing I wonder about is how the heck you sneak up on these (usually sensitive) little critters without scaring 'em off - I mean, the end of your macro lens must be about an inch from their eyeballs! And with that flash contraption hanging off the top of your camera . . .

Thanks!
Dane

wxwax

Excellent!

There's a lot to be said for large macros.

pathfinder

Very nice, Brian.

I especially like the use of color in the background in #2 and #3.

schmoo

I never thought flies could be so beautiful before LV came along.

The hairs on these look so much more like spikes than hair. I am beginning to view them as teeny airborne soldiers of the animal kingdom.

Lord Vetinari

zweiblumen wrote:

I wish I had something constructive to say, but all I have is "Wow!"

The Dolichopid fly shot is far and away my favorite. Looks like he's geared up to take on the world. The colors in the eyes and the carapace (don't know if that's the correct term for it or not, the top of the back with the hairs coming out, guess the whole exo would be the carapace) amaze me.

Thanks Travis
Dolichopid flies have amazing metallic finish on their bodies and eyes so the colouring depends a bit on the type of light and the angle of the shot.

Brian V.

Lord Vetinari

Skippy wrote:

Ohhhhhhhhhhhh Lordy Lordy :jawdrop and WOW!!!
Gawwddd Brian you seem to have this never ending supply of bugs

You offering them free food and lodging or what
I love Images #2 & #3 the whole series is stunning.
The detail you capture is truly amazing Brian, I'm guessing you did you stacking technique right

Excellent series yet again from you ........... Skippy
.

Thanks Skippy
Yes #2,3,5,6 &7 have some hand stacking in them from 2 or 3 shots.
Well I certainly don't charge them for B&B
Interesting I've suddenly had an outbreak of soldier and dance flies- suspect the dance flies eat the soldier flies.

Brian v.

Lord Vetinari

drdane wrote:

Great series, Brian! I'd say the Dolichopid fly is my fav - say, what is that thing under the last two segments of its rear abdomen?

I'm guessing from the DOF that you might have done 2 or 3 slices on this one - could you share the particulars? I also assume this was done with your custom flash setup. I would think that thing would scare them off after one shot . . .

Too bad about the male dance fly . . . is this typical post-nuptial dance behavior, or was this just a gal in a bad mood who mugged an innocent bystander?:D

The other thing I wonder about is how the heck you sneak up on these (usually sensitive) little critters without scaring 'em off - I mean, the end of your macro lens must be about an inch from their eyeballs! And with that flash contraption hanging off the top of your camera . . .

Thanks!
Dane

Hi Dane,
Not sure of the technical term but the dolichopid is a male and think that's it's clasper/genitals.
Yes you are right, all except #1 & #4 have some hand stacking on them from 2 or 3 shots- often just the eye detail.
Normal thing when sneaking up on them- keep out of the light and move in slowly. Obviously you only see pics where this has worked . The flash diffuser does not seem to bother them aapart from them liking to fly off and sit on it (very annoying) but the dolichopid flies are very sensitive to the flash itself- they often fly off when the pre-flash fires so you get a pic of the bottom of their feet.

brian V.

Lord Vetinari

Thanks for looking and commenting Sid, Pathfinder and schmoo
Fairly obviously I find flies quite fascinating and in some cases quite beautiful (in other cases delightfully ugly).
brian v.

Awais Yaqub

Fantastic stunning series Brian

scottV

awesome as always, #2 and #3 are amazing. When you take the pics for the stacking are you adjusting the focus on the lens or moving closer to the subject?

Lord Vetinari

Awais Yaqub wrote:

Fantastic stunning series Brian

Thanks Awais
Brian V.

Lord Vetinari

f00sion wrote:

awesome as always, #2 and #3 are amazing. When you take the pics for the stacking are you adjusting the focus on the lens or moving closer to the subject?

Thanks Scott

When taking a series of pics for a stack I move the camera in in-between shots. I just find this the easiest thing to do as I tend to focus like that anyway (ie set the magnification I want and then move the camera to achieve focus). I suspect if you tried adjusting focus with the focus ring you probably would scare the bug off.
Brian v.

BigAl

Super, super Brian #2 & #3 are awesome.


[Saw my first blue fly of the season this evening, so will have to dust of the 105 ]

Lord Vetinari

BigAl wrote:

Super, super Brian #2 & #3 are awesome.


[Saw my first blue fly of the season this evening, so will have to dust of the 105 ]

Thanks Al,
I've got the opposite problem here- the macro season doesn't seem to start or end
Brian V.

drdane

Lord Vetinari wrote:

Hi Dane,
Not sure of the technical term but the dolichopid is a male and think that's it's clasper/genitals.
Yes you are right, all except #1 & #4 have some hand stacking on them from 2 or 3 shots- often just the eye detail.
Normal thing when sneaking up on them- keep out of the light and move in slowly. Obviously you only see pics where this has worked . The flash diffuser does not seem to bother them aapart from them liking to fly off and sit on it (very annoying) but the dolichopid flies are very sensitive to the flash itself- they often fly off when the pre-flash fires so you get a pic of the bottom of their feet.

brian V.

Thanks for filling those details, Brian.

I presume you used your 5x macro lens for these flies, and the lens must have been about an inch or two from their little "noses." Not a pastime for those short on patience!

Blessings,
Dane

Lord Vetinari

drdane wrote:

Thanks for filling those details, Brian.

I presume you used your 5x macro lens for these flies, and the lens must have been about an inch or two from their little "noses." Not a pastime for those short on patience!

Blessings,
Dane

Dane- no none of them are at 5X think the highest is 3X but most around 2X.

Brian V.

teamracephotos

Wow is right, now I see what “Macro” is all about. MM

drdane

Lord Vetinari wrote:

Dane- no none of them are at 5X think the highest is 3X but most around 2X.

Brian V.

Thanks, Brian

That's pretty remarkable - I guess anything over 1:1 looks big to me!:D

Did you crop these at all?

I'd like to get a MPE 65 at some point, and I'm curious to know roughly how close your lens has to be to the subject to get, say, 3x magnification.

With my 100 macro at 1:1, the end of the lens is 6 inches or 15cm from my subject without the lens hood, which fills in another 3 inches of precious real estate, so I often leave it off when shooting sensitive bugs. I like the working distance, but yearn for greater magnification of those miniature marvels!

Thanks!
Dane

Lord Vetinari

drdane wrote:

Thanks, Brian

That's pretty remarkable - I guess anything over 1:1 looks big to me!:D

Did you crop these at all?

I'd like to get a MPE 65 at some point, and I'm curious to know roughly how close your lens has to be to the subject to get, say, 3x magnification.

With my 100 macro at 1:1, the end of the lens is 6 inches or 15cm from my subject without the lens hood, which fills in another 3 inches of precious real estate, so I often leave it off when shooting sensitive bugs. I like the working distance, but yearn for greater magnification of those miniature marvels!

Thanks!
Dane

Actually can't remember if I cropped any but it will be marginal composition type cropping if I did, but I probably didn't. The focus distance in front of the lens with an MPE-65 at 3:1 is 2 inches, at 5:1 it's 1.6 inches so it's pretty close but you get used to it.
Have you tried just extension tubes- a full set of Kenkos will take you to 2:1 or reversing a 50mm lens onto the front of your macro will give you 3:1.
Brian V.

tlee

clapbow

Lord Vetinari

tlee wrote:

clapbow

Thanks T
Guess you liked them
Brian V.