Posted by Larry Corbett on August 5, 2006 at 6:08 PM
It's amazing what you find and actually end up photographing whilst searching for something completely different.
I was initially looking for a dew laden dragonfly on this early morning sortie but instead spotted this small hoverfly clinging to the underside of this attractive grass which has gone to seed, took this shot and then carried on on my merry search.
Later on I found a Damselfly which had also spent the night on a grass stem but unbeknown to him there was a huge spider asleep on the very top of the grass stem...it's remarkable how difficult a damselfly is to photograph when he's trying to remain unnoticed..more of that another time.
Canon EOS 5D, 180mm f3.5L Macro lens, f16, 0.4 sec ISO 100
I'm afraid this one doesn't really work for me for several reasons: firstly,I find there is too much empty space in the frame which makes the hoverfly seem a bit lost within the image,
I feel that framing the subject to just above the seed head and just below the strand of web (in portrait format) would give the insect a lot more impact.This could also be cropped to a panoramic format at the editing stage for further impact,if you wished.
Secondly,I find the light a little too harsh in this instance,the exposure is probably fine as the hoverfly looks correctly exposed as you've managed to capture the detail in it's darker areas,i.e.it's eye.However,the flower and background look a little too bright,IMO.
Tricky little blighters to get right these insects.
I spent several hours with them yesterday and mainly failed miserably
Posted by Larry Corbett on August 6, 2006 at 4:13 PM
Fair points Justin, i'll revisit the image and see if I can improve things a little
Posted by Larry Corbett on August 6, 2006 at 5:50 PM
A slight crop, a bit of desaturation and levels has improved thing a little, I'm still a novice when it comes to photoshop...whould rather be out with the camera than sat in front of a pc
Discussion
4 repliesI was initially looking for a dew laden dragonfly on this early morning sortie but instead spotted this small hoverfly clinging to the underside of this attractive grass which has gone to seed, took this shot and then carried on on my merry search.
Later on I found a Damselfly which had also spent the night on a grass stem but unbeknown to him there was a huge spider asleep on the very top of the grass stem...it's remarkable how difficult a damselfly is to photograph when he's trying to remain unnoticed..more of that another time.
Canon EOS 5D, 180mm f3.5L Macro lens, f16, 0.4 sec ISO 100
I'm afraid this one doesn't really work for me for several reasons: firstly,I find there is too much empty space in the frame which makes the hoverfly seem a bit lost within the image,
I feel that framing the subject to just above the seed head and just below the strand of web (in portrait format) would give the insect a lot more impact.This could also be cropped to a panoramic format at the editing stage for further impact,if you wished.
Secondly,I find the light a little too harsh in this instance,the exposure is probably fine as the hoverfly looks correctly exposed as you've managed to capture the detail in it's darker areas,i.e.it's eye.However,the flower and background look a little too bright,IMO.
Tricky little blighters to get right these insects.
I spent several hours with them yesterday and mainly failed miserably
Most definately.
The re-post is an improvement IMHO.
Look forward to more.