Eyes of a Holcocephala fusca Robber Fly
Man, was this one difficult! These little robbers are incredibly skittish - an absolute pain (literally!) to shoot. They will hold onto their perch (usually the outer tip of leaves) no matter how hard the wind may blow - but as soon as you get anywhere near them, touch the leaf they are on (no matter how gently) they will fly right away. So I have found that the only way to photograph them is to just stand there and shoot away without any means of stability.
Somehow I found one little guy that would let me get close enough to focus, and 66 shots later, over a period of about 10 minutes of standing bent over with sweat pooling in my eyes, the leaf blowing in the wind, and my hands shaking from fatigue – I just gave up and checked to see if I got anything at all. Out of all those shots – about 30 missed the fly entirely, 33 were completely out of focus, and 3 were good enough to focus stack. I was ecstatic! 3 good photos taken completely handheld in windy conditions at 5:1 magnification at f/8 is no small feat! And even better – the background wasn’t black! I realize I’ve posted this same species several times now, but that doesn’t matter – these little Holcocephala robbers are just too amazing not to post. ----------------------------------------------------- I don't like having to say it - but could you guys cool it with posting all those big flashing group invite pictures in the comments? It's alright if you want if you want to to invite me to a group, and I appreciate the enthusiasm, but try to understand that they are interpreted by some as a bit annoying. So in short - don't follow your group rules. Comments
mamafalda29 says:Hello,I think your photos are fantastic. I
love macro photography and if possible I
would like to know what type of lens you use
for your fantastic fotos.Perdon for my
English but not speak it very well, I'm
Spanish. I hope your answer, thanks.
D E Russell
|
[?]
This photo also belongs to:
TagsAdditional Information
|
||||||||||||||||
Flickr Blog | About Flickr | Terms of Use | Your Privacy | Copyright/IP Policy | Report Abuse
|
Deutsch
|
English
|
Español
|
Français
|
|
Italiano
|
Português
Copyright © 2009 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.
Finding location...
Thomas Shahan
says:
The image above is a crop from the image below (a crop itself):
A full body view of this same species I took about a year ago:
Posted 5 months ago. ( permalink )