I'm not sure whether it is your exceptional eyesight, gear, or
technique, but you are now to be known as Lord of the Flies. Exceptional
work!
Jim Nichols
Tullahoma, TN USA
On 7/14/2016 10:46 PM, Moose wrote:
After getting a pretty nice image of a green bottle fly rather
casually with moderate gear, I got curious about what other ones I
hadn't been paying attention to. The next day was not conducive to
sitting out, waiting for them to come to me, but I ventured out with
TG-4 and teleconverter, 170 mm eq., to see what was out and about and
try its focus stacking.
I did get what I consider a pleasing composition of a fly on a fern.
And the stacking worked a treat for the fly and foliage, giving much
better DoF on the frond than any single shot, while the background is
nicely soft. <http://zone-10.com/tope2/main.php?g2_itemId=20401>
OTOH, I couldn't get close enough to this small fly to get a good
close-up, and going 100% with the tiny sensor, mistakenly set at ISO
400, had little detail.
<http://zone-10.com/tope2/main.php?g2_itemId=20405>
A few days later, I toted the E-M5 II, PLeica 100-400 and Nikon 5T C-U
lens out with me as I sat in the sun. I fairly easily got a better
green bottle shot than before.
<http://zone-10.com/tope2/main.php?g2_itemId=20427>
I tried some stacking, but the flies were quite active, so all the
series did was nail focus/DoF one or two single shots, as the above one.
The next day out, I found some of the smaller flies I had seen and
shot with the TG-4. I discovered that they are hoverers, as easily
noticed from their shadows as directly, and hard to get the AF to
find. I did get "closer" with the longer lens. Closer to 1/4" than
3/8" in length, with similar wingspan, they are much smaller in bulk
than the green bottles.
This is a full frame of a shot of one.
<http://zone-10.com/tope2/main.php?g2_itemId=20409>
A crop of the same shot.
<http://zone-10.com/tope2/main.php?g2_itemId=20411>
And a head on shot at greater distance. Not as good detail and DoF,
but I love the pose, and the way its perch is isolated.
<http://zone-10.com/tope2/main.php?g2_itemId=20413>
A couple of days later, a small fly found the skin of my knee
fascinating, so I took it's picture. It was in constant, rapid motion,
and DoF is tiny at that distance/magnification, but I did get shots
that should ID him, should I want to.
<http://zone-10.com/tope2/main.php?g2_itemId=20415>
I did manage to get two shots without too much movement between them,
giving a strange image of a creature in focus at back and head, but
fading into softness in the far middle. :-)
<http://zone-10.com/tope2/main.php?g2_itemId=20417>
Then a green bottle sat still on a sprinkler head long enough for a
focus stack. Terrific job on the foreground, but I need different
settings to get deep enough for the far wing. Still, rather nice.
<http://zone-10.com/tope2/main.php?g2_itemId=20419>
Then, there's this thing. Big, hovers like a hummingbird/clearwing
moth, the body hair is like some of them, but the head, 'eyebrows' and
mouth parts are wrong.
<http://zone-10.com/tope2/main.php?g2_itemId=20421>
It did pose for a peekaboo shot.
<http://zone-10.com/tope2/main.php?g2_itemId=20423>
Then flew right up and sat still briefly on a flower right in front of
me. <http://zone-10.com/tope2/main.php?g2_itemId=20425>
The combination of PLeica @ 400 mm and 5T really is da bomb for live
shootin' of these little critters.
Flying Moose
<http://zone-10.com/tope2/main.php?g2_itemId=20417>
--
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