First image posted - a fly

Images of undisturbed subjects in their natural environment. All subject types.

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DavieR
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First image posted - a fly

Post by DavieR »

I've been lurking for a while and have been impressed by many of the wonderful pictures in the Forum. Impressed and inspired, so much that I bought a flash and a set of extension tubes for my Sony A900, made a diffuser as suggested by LordV at http://www.flickr.com/groups/macroviewe ... 312315664/ and headed out into our garden to discover a whole new world!

I struggled to get anything in focus at first but my hit-rate is improving and I'm now finding I can think a little more about composition. Anyway, here is a picture I'm particularly proud of. It's a fly on a Marigold stem - hope you like it.


Image

Image details - Sony 100mm macro plus full set of extension tubes which gives almost 2x magnification, F10, ISO 400. Original full frame image was 6048x4032px and cropped to 4596x3064px.

Can anyone ID the fly for me?

David

rjlittlefield
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Post by rjlittlefield »

DavieR, this image is excellent in all respects -- composition, colors, lighting, focus placement, sharpness of subject, smoothness of background. I'm struggling to find some opportunity for improvement. Ah, well, there is that bit of debris on the underside of the stem that's a little distracting. :roll:

Seriously, I think the Beginner forum is not the best place for this image. With your permission, I will be happy to move it to the regular gallery for Nature Photography. It will get a lot more views there -- and probably somebody who can ID the fly.

--Rik

DavieR
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Location: Scotland

Post by DavieR »

Thanks Rik, that is very kind.

I posted in Beginners Macro because I am just starting out but would be very happy for it to be moved.

It was one of those moments when everything comes together and luckily I had had enough practice to get a keeper.

Composition wise, I admit to centering my subjects and cropping later (I have to crop a bit all round as well because of vignetting with my set up).

David

ChrisLilley
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Post by ChrisLilley »

That is a nice, crisp, clear image!

Can't help with the ID, sorry.

rjlittlefield
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Post by rjlittlefield »

DavieR wrote:I posted in Beginners Macro because I am just starting out but would be very happy for it to be moved.
Done.
Composition wise, I admit to centering my subjects and cropping later.
That's a very reasonable approach, especially when you're just starting out. As you get more practice, you'll become able to frame more closely in camera and take a bit more advantage of all the pixels. But for active subjects, I generally leave some spare space around the edges anyway, specifically to allow tuning up the composition later when I have time to make better decisions. For macro work, most modern cameras have plenty of pixels to allow this.

Opinions vary on cropping. Some people are hard over on the concept that cropping implies bad camera craft; others consider it just another technique in an integrated arsenal, to be thoughtfully applied as appropriate. I'm in the latter group.

I'm still looking forward to seeing an ID on this fly.

--Rik

DQE
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Post by DQE »

Very attractive background that matches a well-photographed fly!

I wouldn't have guessed that this background color and brightness would work so well, but it very much works for me.
-Phil

"Diffraction never sleeps"

NikonUser
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Post by NikonUser »

Superb image.
Post it on Diptera.info and you will get an ID, at least to genus.

My guess is an Anthomyiidae; perhaps Delia sp.

Obviously a male.
NU.
student of entomology
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No man can be truly called an entomologist,
sir; the subject is too vast for any single human intelligence to grasp.”
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thartl
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Post by thartl »

great work!!!
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sonyalpha
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Post by sonyalpha »

This is one amazing image.................one that I would love to have taken.............you have captured that fly beautifully against a perfect background:

sonyalpha
Retired but not old in spirit:

Fairly new to photography........keen to learn:

DavieR
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Joined: Mon Jul 19, 2010 1:48 pm
Location: Scotland

Post by DavieR »

rjlittlefield wrote: Opinions vary on cropping. Some people are hard over on the concept that cropping implies bad camera craft; others consider it just another technique in an integrated arsenal, to be thoughtfully applied as appropriate. I'm in the latter group.
For my landscapes I hardly ever crop, prefering to get it right in camera but for insects I need some room to play with.

NikonUser - Thanks for the link to Diptera.info. I rather naively thought an ID would be a relatively simple matter :oops: I never knew that there are so many flies.

Everyone else - thank you for your comments.

David

DavieR
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Post by DavieR »

I have an ID for the fly.

According to a poster at Diptera.info it is a Anthomyiidae, Hydrophoria linogrisea.

David

LordV
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Post by LordV »

Wonderful shot.
Think you'll find you get a natural progression as you become more confident from getting focus right- lighting right- compostion right. Just all takes practice.
Re composition I nearly always just try to give bugs more room in the direction they are looking - works in most cases but do still sometimes do minor cropping for compositional or magnifications reasons.
Brian v.
www.flickr.com/photos/lordv
canon20D,350D,40D,5Dmk2, sigma 105mm EX, Tamron 90mm, canon MPE-65

DavieR
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Joined: Mon Jul 19, 2010 1:48 pm
Location: Scotland

Post by DavieR »

Thanks Brian,

re composition. That make sense - looking into the frame is usually better than looking out. Except, perhaps, for a bug with "attitude" :wink:

I always check your new pictures out on Flickr, a source of daily inspiration for me.

David

gmazza
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Post by gmazza »

Very good detail shown, and the orange background value the fly, at high magnifications, sometimes even centering works, if carefully thought. Cropping could be a good alternative if not to kill the aceptable resolution and definitely improve the photo cold be used.
Gustavo Mazzarollo

Portfolio

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