Windy Sunday - invertebrates

GardenersHelper

GardenersHelper

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Nick
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It was windy on Sunday but I thought I'd spend some time in the garden anyway. Even if nothing works out it is nice to be outside.

There are more images of most of these subjects (some closer in :)) in this set at Flickr.

Edit: There are 1300 pixel high versions of these images over at Flickr.

All the captures were hand-held and used diffused flash.

1. FZ200 and Raynox 150. This fly was a very cooperative subject. I got lots of photos of it. It sucked the bubble back in, but quickly blew another, and then after a very brief bit of grooming blew another, and then changed position and blew fourth one. It's a horrible reflection of the flash, but with such a reflective surface I suppose a strong reflection is inevitable. I imagine better diffusion would soften it and make it less ugly, but I can't work out how to do that at the moment. Perhaps I should have cloned it out, but I'm not sure I want to get into that. I'm comfortable with cloning in the background to remove visual distractions. But messing with the subject I'm not so comfortable with for some reason.


0732 2015_05_31 06 P1800633_DxO LR 1300h by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

2. FZ200 and Raynox 250. This really needed a more powerful lens than the Raynox 250 that I used, so I had to do a big crop on it. But to be honest I wasn't expecting anything at all from this as the leaf that the subject (a barkfly?) was on was continuously flying around in the wind. The subject was completely out of the frame for lengthy periods. I didn't think it was worth changing to something more powerful because it seemed like it would be a waste of time.


0732 2015_05_31 15 P1800730_DxO LR 1300h by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

3. This fly was also quite small. It was on a low down geranium leaf that was not moving nearly as much as the previous one. I think this was the scene that I used the Raynox 150 and 250 stacked for (I only used them once during the session. Given the wind it was a big ask.) This was captured at full zoom, which if it was the 150+ 250 would have made the scene width about 5mm, or about 4.5:1 magnification in APS-C terms. The image is uncropped.


0732 2015_05_31 27 P1800897_DxO LR 1300h by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

4. FZ200 and Raynox 150


0732 2015_05_31 21 P1800772_DxO LR 1300h by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

5. FZ200 and don't know. Either Raynox 150 or 250. The spider was fairly small. I think it is a Cucumber spider, perhaps Araniella cucurbitina.


0732 2015_05_31 28 P1800827_DxO LR 1300h by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

6. FZ200 and Raynox 150. Edit: Speckled bush cricket. Thanks Alf.


0732 2015_05_31 34 P1800969_DxO LR 1300h by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

7. FZ200 and Raynox 150. I think this is Rhopalus subrufus.


0732 2015_05_31 41 P1810088_DxO LR 1300h by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

8. FZ200 and Raynox 150


0732 2015_05_31 44 P1810129_DxO LR 1300h by gardenersassistant, on Flickr
 
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Lovely set Nick
I managed a couple of flies today as well as some ants. I like to see a speckled bush cricket but there is not much chance up here.
 
alfbranch said:
Lovely set Nick
I managed a couple of flies today as well as some ants. I like to see a speckled bush cricket but there is not much chance up here.
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Thanks Alf. I thought your ants were really good. I wish I could do ants. My lighting isn't up to it.

Thanks for the ID. I've edited the OP to include it.
 
Excellent set and detailed to high heaven... focus superb as expected too.

Only issue is #8 which has lots of negative space which add nothing to the image on the lhs.
 
Tintin124 said:
Excellent set and detailed to high heaven... focus superb as expected too.
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Thanks Bryn.

Tintin124 said:
Only issue is #8 which has lots of negative space which add nothing to the image on the lhs.
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He he. Different strokes. The lhs is an integral part of it for me. I like the sweep of the curve in its own right and the more so as in its sweep up the to right it forms what my eyes see as a "passage" for an implied flight line for the fly, as well as merging at the top right with the line of the axis through the fly's body, the two lines and their direction being mutually reinforcing. I know the physical arrangement of the space isn't actually like that (i.e. no "passage"), and I'm sure the real life flight line isn't like that (I've got an example of how weird their take off orientation can be in my recent-ish backlog that I hope will be good enough to post when I find it again. Actually, it might be worth posting even if it isn't in decent focus etc). Despite all that reality stuff, that's what my eyes (etc) are seeing/interpreting/imagining/feeling.


0732 2015_05_31 44 P1810129_DxO LR 1300h annotated by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

Besides which, I'm getting into really wide crops more generally. These let you see plenty on a 16:9 or 16:10 screen, but to my eye thirds don't necessarily work well with them. Not that I'd really want to pin a number on it, not least because I think this positioning stuff is all context dependent, but for illustrative purposes perhaps more like 5/12 horizontally (half way between 1/3 and 1/2) as a starting point to consider. It gives the usual directional offset, albeit more subtle, and the wide crop lets you see the subject nice and big (which is determined by the vertical pixels), while at the same time seeing it "deeper" in its context than is usually the case (literally, in its wider context).

Well, that's how I feel about it this morning anyway. This afternoon, tomorrow? Who knows. :)

Thanks for provoking the thinking juices Bryn.
 
Carlh said:
Great set Nick, very jealous of your fly blowing bubbles shot. Always wanted to get one of those shots .Favourite has to be that one, nice work fella
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ChrisA said:
Nice selection Nick - like Carl, I like the bubble blower a lot, along with the cricket.
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Thanks both. I seem to see more of these bubblers than most people. That may well be because I spend so much time photographing flies - often they are the only things around (of a size I feel like tackling). If you do find one bubbling then you may have plenty of time. They (or the ones I see) seem to be not inclined to move when they are bubbling. I would have thought that made them rather vulnerable to predation. I can only assume that the bubbling has some functionality that makes that risk worth taking (or perhaps if a real risk did arise rather than me bumbling around them they would be off in a flash).

I thought of doing a post just on the bubbler, because of the phases it went through, but I thought that would probably be OTT as a lot of the shots are rather similar, just with bubbles of different sizes for the first two thirds of the shots, and the other third with the fly in a different position, and a couple in between with no bubble. Also, I was rather concerned (half way to embarrassed I suppose if I'm honest) about the horrible reflection of the flash. I was willing to take flack for a single image like that, but posting six out of eight looking like that seemed to be asking for trouble.

Unfortunately although I got plenty of shots of the cricket I thought that unlike the previous one it wasn't doing anything interesting/varied enough to be worth a post of its own.
 
An "Excellent" set of images Nick, really like the bubble blower. Plus #4, & #6, are right on the money.(y)

George.
 
Tintin124 said:
Ok Nick I did see you flickr image so prepared how I see it.... ;) hehehee :cool:

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That crop works for me Bryn. (Is the subject perhaps slightly too far to the left, so a bit more space on the left or a bit less on the right - which would presumably mean a bit off the top/bottom? But basically I get it. It's good.)


0732 2015_05_31 44 P1810129_DxO LR 1300h Bryn's suggested crop by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

Interestingly enough, I "see" the line differently though. I can't "see" your curve at the bottom. More something like this (all approx as of course you're well aware).


0732 2015_05_31 44 P1810129_DxO LR 1300h Bryn's suggested crop annotated by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

Bit vague about what I "see" beyond the end of the line on the bottom left. On reflection, I think this is how it resolves to my eye. Curving the other way compared to yours.


0732 2015_05_31 44 P1810129_DxO LR 1300h Bryn's suggested crop annotated 2 by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

Anyway, it's nice to be discussing some specifics/details and alternative renditions/interpretations/visualisations.
 
See after posting mine I saw the curve in your #3 but placed it with the upper most leaf...

However if you see the background leaves they both flow into the top right corner hence where my curve is coming from my eye is picking that up, after the annotation it picked up the 2nd curve which is the 1st I think you see.

I think the flies placement is perfect on this crop to my eye at least not cropping off top/bottom etc.
 
G.K.Jnr. said:
An "Excellent" set of images Nick, really like the bubble blower. Plus #4, & #6, are right on the money.(y)

George.
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Thanks George. I think #6 and the other ones like it were my personal favourites of the day. There were some others which I was hoping would have somewhat similar appeal to my eye but they didn't turn out quite as I hoped. FWIW they are the five fly shots almost at the end of the Album. Not horrible, but something not quite right about each of them I think.
 
Now thats something ive never seen before, a fly blowing bubbles.... what the heck is all that about!??? Great pics though!!
 
hoftwi said:
Very nice set Nick(y) Another cricket I see........on the forum but not a real one.

No.1 is so cool, good capture and the rest are clean and sharp(y)
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Thanks Icy. I'm very interested in your "clean and sharp" comment. The FZ200 is very noisy, even at base ISO sometimes, and I'm experimenting with DXO OpticsPro to see if that will clean up the noise without smearing away the details and losing sharpness, I'm using its "Prime" noise reduction (which only works on raw files). It takes a while to do each image, but I ran it on all the images I processed from Sunday before doing my normal processing in Lightroom. It's the second day's shots I've used it on and I'm beginning to think it may do what I need. So your "clean and sharp" comment is pretty encouraging for me. :)
 
jus_tin said:
Now thats something ive never seen before, a fly blowing bubbles.... what the heck is all that about!??? Great pics though!!
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Thanks Justin. No one seems to know what the bubble blowing is about; quite possibly to do with digestion (flies only take in liquids I think, not solids). There are lots of other possibilities. If you are interested there is a quite detailed summary of possibilities and discussion here at diptera.info.
 
Neil Burnell said:
Stunning detail Nick as always and some great compositions as well. No 1 steals it for me, great detail and I'm yet to see one of these!
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Thanks Neil. Keep looking. I'm sure you'll see one before too long. I usually only notice the bubbles when I start photographing a fly. It's not just flies by the way; bees, wasps and lace wings do it too apparently, although I've only ever seen flies doing it.
 
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