A bunch of flies & others.

orionmystery · Sep 28, 2011

A robber fly with prey - froghopper. You can see bubbles in the head of the prey. More robber flies here:

A cotton stainer bug (?)...and an unidentified flying insect on top right, phoridae fly?

A male fly (Calliphoridae > Rhinia apicalis?) with beautiful eyes, on my finger. Slightly cropped on the right.

Longest natural light exposure ever, 5 seconds! It was windy and the fly was moving...but somehow this shot came out ok.

Signal fly, Platystomatidae, a species of Loxonevra near decora Fabricius (From DI forum)...too big for the MPE65.

annoying mossie

not sure what fly

Tomasko · Sep 28, 2011

Simply stunning

StringThing · Sep 28, 2011

Truly amazing!

Forkie · Sep 28, 2011

The first one is quite incredible. To see the bubbles in his head is fascinating. Presumably, they're air bubbles getting in through the puncture wound made by the Robber?

How do you light these, by the way?

Also, are these single shots or are they stacked multiple shots?

I have a fascination with these insect macros. I'm forever searching for them on Flickr! It's something I'd love to get into but alas, cannot afford the lenses and lighting for it for the foreseeable. Keep them coming!

orionmystery · Sep 28, 2011

Tomasko said:
Simply stunning

StringThing said:
Truly amazing!

Forkie said:
The first one is quite incredible. To see the bubbles in his head is fascinating. Presumably, they're air bubbles getting in through the puncture wound made by the Robber?

How do you light these, by the way?

Also, are these single shots or are they stacked multiple shots?

I have a fascination with these insect macros. I'm forever searching for them on Flickr! It's something I'd love to get into but alas, cannot afford the lenses and lighting for it for the foreseeable. Keep them coming!

Thanks for looking and commenting, Tomasko, StringThing, Forkie.

Forkie - From wikipedia: The short, strong proboscis is used to stab and inject victims with saliva containing neurotoxic and proteolytic enzymes which paralyze and digest the insides; the fly then sucks the liquefied meal through the proboscis. The bubbles you see should be the liquified internal of the prey.

All single shots, unstacked. Although all taken with the MPE65 (except #4), you can get similar result with a cheap tamron sp90. You don't need expensive lighting either. A single 270ex (or equivalent) will do just fine:

270EX for Macro - improved version. | Up Close with Nature

Derrel · Sep 28, 2011

OUTSTANDING first photo! The subsequent photographs are also quite good.

cgipson1 · Sep 28, 2011

Forkie said:
I have a fascination with these insect macros. I'm forever searching for them on Flickr! It's something I'd love to get into but alas, cannot afford the lenses and lighting for it for the foreseeable. Keep them coming!

Forkie.... do you have a 50mm or a 35? Get some extension tubes (even cheap ones) or a Raynox DCR-250 ($80)... you would be surprised what you can do. If you already have a flash, you are good to go.... just need to diffuse it (can even be on camera, although that isn't best). A short TTL extension cord would work great, and they aren't expensive. Just some ideas!

cgipson1 · Sep 28, 2011

Kurt, Lovely shots! That first one is really cool...

Forkie · Sep 28, 2011

cgipson1 said:
Forkie said:

I have a fascination with these insect macros. I'm forever searching for them on Flickr! It's something I'd love to get into but alas, cannot afford the lenses and lighting for it for the foreseeable. Keep them coming!

Click to expand...

Forkie.... do you have a 50mm or a 35? Get some extension tubes (even cheap ones) or a Raynox DCR-250 ($80)... you would be surprised what you can do. If you already have a flash, you are good to go.... just need to diffuse it (can even be on camera, although that isn't best). A short TTL extension cord would work great, and they aren't expensive. Just some ideas!