Long Legged Fly (Dolichopodidae)
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Long Legged Fly (Dolichopodidae)
A few shots of a little Long Legged Fly (Dolichopodidae) I took a couple of weeks ago...
Firstly with minimal diffusion (a cylinder of a new material I've been playing with)
Secondly same pose with a stonger diffuser (sawn off ping pong ball)
And lastly the same fly, slightly different angle after the fly has been at room temperature for about a day, showing the colours in the eye are already gone (also used ping pong ball)
All shot with Nikon 10x/0.30 CF-N objective, stacked with Zerene PMAX. Stacks of 117, 108 and 134 respectively.
Firstly with minimal diffusion (a cylinder of a new material I've been playing with)
Secondly same pose with a stonger diffuser (sawn off ping pong ball)
And lastly the same fly, slightly different angle after the fly has been at room temperature for about a day, showing the colours in the eye are already gone (also used ping pong ball)
All shot with Nikon 10x/0.30 CF-N objective, stacked with Zerene PMAX. Stacks of 117, 108 and 134 respectively.
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- Wim van Egmond
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Very nice! Long legged flies have spectacular faces. I have shot some too the last weeks and found one with green eyes with a remarkable pattern. There is hint of this pattern in the second image but it is so faint it is almost not there.
What is also nice about dolichopodids is the crest of hairs around the back of the head. Like a lion's mane.
Wim
What is also nice about dolichopodids is the crest of hairs around the back of the head. Like a lion's mane.
Wim
Wim, agreed, they're one of my favourite insects to shoot! I look forward to seeing your shots...
Craig yes this happens quite quickly, I always try to shoot them as soon as they are out of the freezer, usually allowing just a little while for the worst of any condensation to evaporate before I start.
Craig yes this happens quite quickly, I always try to shoot them as soon as they are out of the freezer, usually allowing just a little while for the worst of any condensation to evaporate before I start.
Okay there's extraneous stuff in the shot - basically what we're looking at is a ping pong ball which is obviously a sphere, with the top and bottom cut off with a knife, and then roughly straightened with sandpaper. This ends up in a sort of doughnut shape, in this case the hole at the bottom is slightly wider than the hole at the top.
The camera is mounted vertically above the subject, pointing straight down (Through the hole in the top of the ping-pong ball). The subject is sat on a microscope slide which is horizontally placed on the minimal stage of the microscope, the ping pong ball is then placed on the slide, around the subject. The camera is then lowered down, in this case I'm using the OM38/2.8 with a fancy reflector mounted on the front of it but more commonly I use the Nikon 10x/0.30 CF-N objective, the working distance is much shorter than shown here and the lens actually pokes down into the hole in the top of the ping-pong ball.
Ignore the stuff below the stage, that's messing around with the light on the background.
Does that make any sense?
The camera is mounted vertically above the subject, pointing straight down (Through the hole in the top of the ping-pong ball). The subject is sat on a microscope slide which is horizontally placed on the minimal stage of the microscope, the ping pong ball is then placed on the slide, around the subject. The camera is then lowered down, in this case I'm using the OM38/2.8 with a fancy reflector mounted on the front of it but more commonly I use the Nikon 10x/0.30 CF-N objective, the working distance is much shorter than shown here and the lens actually pokes down into the hole in the top of the ping-pong ball.
Ignore the stuff below the stage, that's messing around with the light on the background.
Does that make any sense?
This specimen is just laying on it's side on the slide yes. Sometimes they are propped up on their wings or on bluetac or some card.
The background is on the microscope base hidden inside that diffuser at the bottom which in this case is not being used as diffuser but just as a stand for those bits of card which are reducing flash light to the bg...
The background is on the microscope base hidden inside that diffuser at the bottom which in this case is not being used as diffuser but just as a stand for those bits of card which are reducing flash light to the bg...