Fly on shrub

I was just walking around the garden (as I occasionally do in the evening, despite it only taking about 90 seconds to do, as it's a small garden!) and this evening I spotted a greenbottle on the spiraea shrub.

I didn't fancy my chances of it even being there long enough to get the camera but it was still sat there in the cool evening air. I don't know what flies do at night (apart from rest)...

It was quite a way in toward the centre of the shrub and the lower branches were in the way, but I managed to get the tripod legs into place without disturbing it the subject. Unfortunately the angle was against me so I had to get what I could, which meant one eye was never going to be sharply in the focal plane, and of course due to the hour, I had to use the (hand-held to one side) ringflash.

Didn't come too badly, but I had to clone some dead leaf to hide a brown area which was annoying me, but I don't think you can tell that much. Other than that, only editing done was to add some clarity and a bit of sharpness, and some noise reduction to counter those two processes, and a crop to aid composition.

Sigma 105 used and three extension tubes.

C&C as always encouraged.


Exif:

Camera Maker: Canon
Camera Model: Canon EOS 550D
Lens: 105mm
Image Date: 2011-05-29 20:56:01 +0000
Focal Length: 105mm
Aperture: f/8.0
Exposure Time: 0.017 s (1/60)
ISO equiv: 100
Exposure Bias: none
Metering Mode: Matrix
Exposure: aperture priority (semi-auto)
White Balance: Auto
Flash Fired: Yes (Auto, return light detected)
Orientation: Normal
Color Space: sRGB
GPS Coordinate: undefined, undefined
Photographer: Paul Iddon
Copyright: www.pauliddon.co.uk




Paul.