Scary eyes (bug)

[lesno1]

1

[Geoff F]

Scary subject as well. One of the Cleg Horseflies; a biting female!

[lesno1]

Thanks Geoff one to avoid then , i knew someone on here would know what it was

[Craigie]

Please do not take this the wrong way Norman, as very much a beginner in macro myself I find very little in focus and what appears to much PP with lots of purple round the edges of the Cleg.
Hopefully some of the more experienced macro shooters can be of some assistance.
In the meantime keep shooting and posting

[DanK]

Scary subject as well. One of the Cleg Horseflies; a biting female!

OK, Geoff, that's impressive, even given your encyclopedic knowledge of bugs. The horsefly I got--the eyes are a good starting point--but the gender? Were you able to discern part of the proboscis?

[lesno1]

Its fine Gary we should all be open to advice and help to improve and like you i am very amateur, this is an old shot i just dug out and i mainly was curious to find out what it was . I know its a poor picture and you're correct about the pp but it was the best i could get it just to post it if that makes sense .I was using a Tamron 90 lens and hardly took a decent photo with it just could not get along with it so i changed to a Sigma 105 macro with os and things have improved . I just need some bugs now

[DanK]

a Sigma 105 macro with os

Les,

If I can offer some unsolicited advice, don't rely much on OS. Conventional OS (which I think that lens has, but I am not sure) corrects for angular motion, which is a very big deal at distance but not the biggest problem at macro distances. At macro distances, the bigger issue is motion parallel to the sensor, which very few image stablization systems correct for.

My lens does, but even with that help, I rely on physical support. I usually use a monopod with a tilt head, set so that I can rotate in the plane parallel to the lens. It makes a huge difference for me, but then again, I'm pretty clumsy.

Here's a pretty typical bug-hunting rig for me, with a 100mm lens and a 36mm extension tube:



The diffused flash is another reason I rely on physical support--it adds weight and throws the whole thing out of balance.

Dan

[lesno1]

Thats great Dan always helpful to see someones rig i was after that 100mm lens but finances were too tight so i bought this one .Maybe the other one had problems i dont know but this one has made a marked difference to my efforts , i love what you guys do with the flash and i am waiting for a monopod to be delivered

[Geoff F]

OK, Geoff, that's impressive, even given your encyclopedic knowledge of bugs. The horsefly I got--the eyes are a good starting point--but the gender? Were you able to discern part of the proboscis?

That is an easy one. Widely spaced eyes; check out the spacing on top of its head.

Going to actual species is very tricky with this family and it requires a really close shot of the first antennae segment to see if there is a tiny notch.

OK, maybe the image has heavily saturated colour, but not bad for a beginner on a small and flighty subject.

[DanK]

Thanks. I didn't know to look for that.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk