The Robber got his Skeeter

jaharris1001 · May 26, 2011

) I was photographing this Robberfly, who by the way was very cooperative, he was on the hunt, pearched on his hunting spot, he'd dart off then return,, dart off then return, he finally returned with this mosquito which he allowed me to photograph,, shorty thereafter he discarded that mosquito and returned with a FULLY gorged mosquito, filled to the brim with blood,, I can only assume it was MY blood :shock: he wrestled with that mosquito for a second then disappeared and I never saw him again,, these are all shot using a Canon 40D, Sigma 105mm macro lens, off camera flash diffused, Raw format, Manual mode and hand held,, I saw some light filtering through the trees highlighting a tree behind him, so I positioned myself to where the light was behind him therefore giving a nice background color,,

1

2 by jaharris1001, on Flickr
Exposure 0.008 sec (1/125)
Aperture f/10.0
Focal Length 105 mm
ISO Speed 400

2

3 by jaharris1001, on Flickr
Exposure 0.008 sec (1/125)
Aperture f/10.0
Focal Length 105 mm
ISO Speed 400

3

14 by jaharris1001, on Flickr
Exposure 0.008 sec (1/125)
Aperture f/10.0
Focal Length 105 mm
ISO Speed 400

4

1 by jaharris1001, on Flickr
Exposure 0.008 sec (1/125)
Aperture f/10.0
Focal Length 105 mm
ISO Speed 400

5

9 by jaharris1001, on Flickr
Exposure 0.008 sec (1/125)
Aperture f/10.0
Focal Length 105 mm
ISO Speed 400

PhotoTish · May 26, 2011

Wow! scary looking bug! A very nice set of photos. 4 and 5 are favourites :thumbup:

Markw · May 26, 2011

Wow. 1 and 4 are very nice. You should look more into flash diffusion. If the flash was diffused a bit more, these would be even more successful!

Mark

Arkanjel Imaging · May 26, 2011

Ya, that 4th one is sweet. :thumbup:

ChrisA · May 27, 2011

Good story and some great shots. Never knew they would return to a favourite spot.

2WheelPhoto · May 27, 2011

nice, thanks for sharing these pics

jaharris1001 · May 27, 2011

Markw said:
Wow. 1 and 4 are very nice. You should look more into flash diffusion. If the flash was diffused a bit more, these would be even more successful!

Mark

Thank you all for the comments !!!
Mark, I do use a flash diffuser, I use a Lumiquest softbox and I also added more material inside to diffuse even more,, these guys eyes are so reflective,,, I even had the flash cut way back,, - 1 1/3 - - 1 2/3 roughly,, maybe even MORE material inside the diffuser

Markw · May 27, 2011

I use the Lumiquest LQ-107 on my SB-600. I find it VERY hard to get good light from that combo alone. I am seriously considering throwing the money into an R1 kit. All this might seem like gibberish to a Canon shooter like yourself, just know I'm right there with you with the lumiquest for macro work. It's frustrating! These shots are way better than the ones I get with it. :thumbsup:

Mark

jaharris1001 · May 27, 2011

Markw said:
I use the Lumiquest LQ-107 on my SB-600. I find it VERY hard to get good light from that combo alone. I am seriously considering throwing the money into an R1 kit. All this might seem like gibberish to a Canon shooter like yourself, just know I'm right there with you with the lumiquest for macro work. It's frustrating! These shots are way better than the ones I get with it. :thumbsup:

Mark

That R1 looks pretty nice indeed !! a dual light source, but diffusing BOTH of those may be an ongoing issue as well LOL Canon has a dual light source the MT-24ex which is WAY expensive, I know a guy ( Dalantech) a fabulous macro shooter that uses on of those, he's always fiddling with diffusers for that system, another guy "LordV" uses a single speedlite and a home made diffuser, he gets really good results with his system, another thought is the Sigma EM 140 DG, its reasonably priced but not sure about results from that system either,, again, diffusing that ring flash may be an issue

TheFantasticG · May 29, 2011

Good job sir. Like the one with the prey the best.

I have to say, that you will NOT regret getting the R1 kit. I love it. I quit using my SB-600 after I got 'em. The R1 comes with diffusers for the SB-R200s, but I ended up not using them because they block too much light. What I do is put a couple of pieces of scotch type over the flashes to diffuse the light. The more tape, the more diffusion. I find that two - three pieces does it best though. Check out any of my recent threads (from this week) to see the results.