Flying High

Last weekend was a very good day to perform some macro shooting again. At the end of the day, temperatures had dropped to about 20 degrees Celsius so the various bugs came out of their hiding place to feed and bask in the afternoon sunshine.
I attached the Pentax AF400T to the side of my camera and mounted the FA* 200/4.0 macro for some shooting. Especially the various fly species were present in large numbers.

I did capture some bubble blowing flies before during a shoot, but that day I spotted a particular large one that gave some excellent close-up abilities at 1:1 setting. I have to remind myself to look into the phenomenon to see why they are blowing these liquid bubbles!

In a nearby forest there were large quantities of hooverflies flying in the afternoon sunbeams. The use of the flash enabled me to capture quite few of them in mid-air. Needless to say I was pleased with these photos, as I don't get the chance to shoot them like this. After cropping to about 50% of the original size, they make quite handsome enlargements.


The sample above was taken with the following specs:
Focal Length: 200 mm
Exposure Time: 1/180 sec
Aperture: f/16
ISO Equivalent: 200
Exposure Bias: -2/3