Post your insects

[Bobobird]

Good one Geoff. Have always wondered what the hidden one looked like. Thanks.

[geordie01]

Due to the economic turn down caused by bankers and recent governments i have a lot more time to practice so here is another attempt



K-r and 100mm macro and a macro flash

[Geoff F]

That works fine, George.

Episyrphus balteatus female.

[Letrow]

K-r and 100mm macro and a macro flash

Nice flash effect George, what is the flash exactly, around the lens?

[Letrow]

Conopidae (thanks Geoff). Reading about these little insects is interesting. More aggressive and parasites in the larvae stage.
I found them in Thijsse's Hof, a very small nature reserve near to where I live.

[johnbharle]

Tobacco Hornworm (Manduca Sexta).



Came home from vacation to find this critter dining on my tomato plants...

What a jaunty little horn this guy has :-0

[Geoff F]

You won't find those flies under Syrphidae, Peter. They are Conopidae. And those look like one of the Sicus species. Although there are some rather similar Myopa species.

They lay their eggs in bee nests.

I see you have managed to find a mating pair.

Now, let's get back to strange looking hoverflies.



Baccha elongata (male).

[Shibang]

Any kind of Critique is welcome and appreciated. I have not been shooting long and this was the first day I got my Nikon 105mm VR so any help for macro or anything in general can only help me.


Camera: Nikon D7000
Exposure Program: Manual
Exposure: 0.004 sec (1/250)
Aperture: f/18.0
Focal Length: 105 mm
ISO Speed: 100

Clarity: +50
Vibrance: +25
Sharpening: +25

Cropped but not sure how much


20120603-DSC_5735 by G-Lang, on Flickr

[gpzt]

Budleia flowers are supposed to attract butterflies...

[Letrow]

Any kind of Critique is welcome and appreciated. I have not been shooting long and this was the first day I got my Nikon 105mm VR so any help for macro or anything in general can only help me.


Camera: Nikon D7000
Exposure Program: Manual
Exposure: 0.004 sec (1/250)
Aperture: f/18.0
Focal Length: 105 mm
ISO Speed: 100

Clarity: +50
Vibrance: +25
Sharpening: +25

Cropped but not sure how much


20120603-DSC_5735 by G-Lang, on Flickr

First of all, welcome and if you can add your first name to your profile it will be appreciated on this forum.

Your photo looks good, the fly is nice and sharp. There is perhaps a bit too much going on in the background, which brings me to your aperture of F/18. You can do with a bit less I think.
Most of my macro photos are done at F/11 (I have the same body/lens combination as you have), which gives you a bit more flexibility.

[Letrow]

Budleia flowers are supposed to attract butterflies...

Beautiful Guy, I wish I had more butterflies, but it seems to be a bad year for them over here.

[Letrow]

You won't find those flies under Syrphidae, Peter. They are Conopidae. And those look like one of the Sicus species. Although there are some rather similar Myopa species.

They lay their eggs in bee nests.

I see you have managed to find a mating pair.

Now, let's get back to strange looking hoverflies.



Baccha elongata (male).

More head than body almost. A little beauty.

[Ikm]

Hi guys, new member! C&C welcome!

Regards,

Ivan.


Hippotionceleriobrown by ikm1966, on Flickr

Brown form of the caterpillar of the vine hawk moth Hippotion celerio. Captured 10 June 2012 in Gosnells (a suburb of Perth) Western Australia. Some nice pictures of the adult moth are available at ukmoths.org.uk/show.php?bf=1993

This not-so-little creature measures 65mm and is very probably going to form a rather untidy cocoon of leaves in the near future.

The vine hawk moth is a noted pest of Taro plants but, apparently, reasonably benign otherwise. I caught this one and a black form (photo to come) munching on my dying grape vine leaves - it's early winter here! The stick that the animal is posing on is what is left of its last meal. These things can seriously eat (and poop!). They get fed a fresh cutting of 5 or 6 leaves everyday and manage to chomp through a fair bit of that.

With any sort of luck I'll get some good photos of the cocoon and the moth.

[Bobobird]

Welcome Ivan. That is a cute one.

[geordie01]

Nice flash effect George, what is the flash exactly, around the lens?

Hi Peter
i use a Sigma EM-140 DG

[geordie01]

[Geoff F]

Any kind of Critique is welcome and appreciated. I have not been shooting long and this was the first day I got my Nikon 105mm VR so any help for macro or anything in general can only help me.

Sometimes you need F18 for extra depth on wide, or long specimens but the downside can be a proportional loss of shutter speed and Iso; or having to use extra flash.

I usually work at F14 as a good average, but never less than F11, as Peter already mentioned.

One suggestion about cropping is that I often rotate the image to give the most pleasing view. But I usually like to see an insect slightly off the strict vertical plane. Eg, head very slightly upwards.

Then I try to crop in a way which removes the worst of any distracting background.

How big was that fly? It looks a bit like Tachina grossa; which is large, about twice the size of the average bluebottle. You have plenty of sharp detail there.

[Geoff F]

And talking about rotation before cropping.

I tried this shot at various angles but nothing else looked right. So back to the original real life angle.



A 90 degree rotation looked good - but defied gravity.

ps. It's a female Dung fly feeding on something smaller.

[Letrow]

Hi guys, new member! C&C welcome!

Regards,

Ivan.

Hi Ivan. As Bobo said: that looks good and I like the white background here, it works for the subject.

[Ikm]

Thanks Peter and Bobo, your encouragement and kind words are great!

Peter, I was playing with a DIY macro box thingie and I noticed that young Hippo had finished off the days food and was laying nicely on the stick. The obvious thing to do was place the stick and Hippo in the box and see what came out the other side - I'm glad you like it. I tried some environmental shots before I brought the animal inside but nothing, absolutely nothing, worked.

Yes, it *was* a very pretty animal - it seems to have built its cocoon and gone to sleep for the winter and I'll never see that animal again. Quite sad really, in a strange sort of way. The West Aussie Museum want some shots of the cocoon etc so I'll post those here when I get around to taking them.

Unfortunately I joined the forums and found this thread at the wrong time of year for me - winter (approaching our coldest and wettest month) is probably not the ideal time for insect photography!

Thanks again for your comments, it is very much appreciated!

Ivan.