X-rated fruit flies

Lord Vetinari

Yes you guessed- more fruit flies shortly. Taken with an MPE-65 around 3:1

Brian V.

thebigsky

Fantastic as always Brian, just imagine getting trodden on when you're in the middle of it.

Charlie

teamracephotos

Wow you make them look huge!
Simply amazing I tended bar for many years here in sunny Florida. Man those fruit flies used to get into everything. They are so tiny and used to fly right into the bottles of liquor though the small holes in the speed pourer. Yet you make them look huge. Thanks for the close up view. MM

canon400d

Lord Vetinari wrote:

Yes you guessed- more fruit flies shortly. Taken with an MPE-65 around 3:1

Brian V.

Once again Brian, absolutely STUNNING.
Cheers
Bob

Skippy

Lord Vetinari wrote:

Yes you guessed- more fruit flies shortly. Taken with an MPE-65 around 3:1

Brian V.

Hmmmmmmm me Ann and Christina watched two Lions doing this in Canada,
and they were not happy about it at all

The Fly's both appear to have extra fine white hairs at the very bottom
of their eyes.

Love the colour in the wings in the last shot

Another excellent series Brian .......... Skippy
.

wxwax

Wow.

Especially the middle one. Fabulous.

schmoo

Nice WT drosophila!!

Even in all those years of genetics labs I don't think I've seen fruit flies this big.

I absolutely love the variety of background colors you gave these lovebugs. Did they move or did you see several couples in different locations?

Lord Vetinari

Thanks for the kind comments everyone - much appreciated

Skippy- think these flies may have that hair all over their eyes but the light is at the right angle to catch it at the bottom.

schmoo - No it's the same couple in all the shots. They were shot on a water barrel in the garden that is green but has a black lid with a flower pot on it. The flower pot is there because springtails like grazing on it. Not exactly a "set" but I do photograph a lot of bugs there - because of the curves and ledges I can often get good angles on the bugs and I do purposely put little bits of fruit on the edge to attract bugs . In the middle shot they are standing on a slice of banana.

Brian V.

BigAl

Very nice Brian! #2 came out really well

2Qs: Is #1 on the Valentine carriage?
Did you do stacking on these?

Lord Vetinari

BigAl wrote:

Very nice Brian! #2 came out really well

2Qs: Is #1 on the Valentine carriage?
Did you do stacking on these?

Thanks Al

No they are on another well photographed object- one of my rainwater barrels and yes all the shots are focused stacks. I'd guess about 75% of my shots above 1:1 are focus stacked.
Brian V.

Ann McRae

Schmoo - you too?

1980 - 1985 BSc Honors Genetics
1985 in a bacteriophage lab
1986 - 1989 in a Drosophila lab - developmental genetics - breeding flies with catastrophic developmental mutations....looking for the meaning of life!:D

schmoo wrote:

Nice WT drosophila!!

Even in all those years of genetics labs I don't think I've seen fruit flies this big.

I absolutely love the variety of background colors you gave these lovebugs. Did they move or did you see several couples in different locations?

Ann McRae

Gorgeous, Brian.

ann

Lord Vetinari

Ann McRae wrote:

Gorgeous, Brian.

ann

Thanks Ann

Can't say I ever did research on these but bred them in Genetics practicals

Brian V.

ziggy53

I did radiation experiments on the Drosophila melanogaster using a radium dial watch as the source of radiation. (HS science project.)

I was supposed to do chromosome smears as part of the study, but never did succeed. (It's harder than it might seem.)

ziggy53

Very nice images Brian. Kinda makes you want to add a music track, doesn't it?

1145climber

anyone wanna quickly explain or give me a link to... what is focus stacking?

EDIT: just wikipedia-ed it... oh i love wikipedia. so you didnt focus stack in these, cool... but how could you have focus stacked anyway? dont all the pics need to be the same, and yet isnt the subject moving?

Lord Vetinari

ziggy53 wrote:

Very nice images Brian. Kinda makes you want to add a music track, doesn't it?

Je T'aime

Thanks ziggy

Brian V.

Lord Vetinari

1145climber wrote:

anyone wanna quickly explain or give me a link to... what is focus stacking?

EDIT: just wikipedia-ed it... oh i love wikipedia. so you didnt focus stack in these, cool... but how could you have focus stacked anyway? dont all the pics need to be the same, and yet isnt the subject moving?

Here's a tutorial
http://www.wonderfulphotos.com/articles/macro/focus_stacking/

All these shots are focus stacked either using the above prog or by hand. You just have to be very quick in taking the shots

Brian V.

1145climber

wow brian, youre amazing at this stuff... your macros from the tutorial and smugmug site are ridiculously captivating