For those who are unfamiliar with Hummingbird Moths (sometimes called Hummingbird Hawk Moths), they resemble hummingbirds, giant bumblebees, and from the back (to me anyways) a lobster. One of the most peculiar and interesting insects there are.

They stay in one place for a mximum of .6 of a second and disappear as fast as they come. I have never seen one actually land anywhere...

I've had a personal quest to get some keeper shots of these little beasties for years, and have taken 100's of poor shots.

Yesterday, though, the Photography gods smiled on me and gave me a break:







Shots taken with K100/FA*300; f6.7@1/500; ISO 400. All are pretty heavy crops, with flat light, but I'll take them anyway.

[jshurak]

very cool. Patience and perseverance pays off!

[doggydude]

Hot damn! Nice captures!

...so, the flying crustacean, eh?

[scott-devon]

Wow, that last one is dynamite. A very strange looking insect for sure.

[daacon]

That is just some crossover creature like a Big Foot ! Well done Tom - not so sure that would go well boiled with a side of hot butter

[matiki]

Wow... those are incredible shots. I didn't even know that insect existed. Absolutely amazing.

[little laker]

Beautiful photo's Tom, I'm glad that the photo gods gave you that break

I've never even heard of a Hummingbird Moth before It's sure nice to see a different species from Canada

[Marc Langille]

Great shots Tom! They are very difficult to photograph!

We have 3-4 of them now, whereas last year I saw one, perhaps two. Since my wife is a master gardener, there are much more "subjects" around the flowers she chose for the attraction capabilities of butterflies, etc. I really haven't put my mind to photographing them yet, although I really should - but this heat wave is limiting time outside - over 100F with the heat index.

Again, well done!

Cheers,
Marc

[nathancombs]

the photogods did like you lol good photps

[Heinrich Lohmann]

Congrats Tom, that are very cool pictures. I have not seen any around here but when we lived in the Yukon we had many in the garden. I tried to photograph them but that was before digital and I was never successfull.

Thanks for posting them and do take care, Heinrich

[SCGushue]

Tom,

These are really wonderful images of the hawkmoth. The angles are really good and shows the insect really well. I never seemed to have a camera at hand when I have seen them...which is rarely and they tend not to hang around too long... but a week or so ago I happened to be doing some shooting when one of them happened to land on a drooping bee balm that was inches off the ground.

This was the only shot I got off before he was gone. Interesting how different the color variation is between your specimen and the one pictured below. Your specimen has fantastic coloration! Wonder if it is species specific or coloration of the sex of the subject.