[ffking]

another of my speckled bush cricket friends

[Philoslothical]

A very cooperative locust I met while hiking today. This is my first attempt at a small handheld stack. It's only 12 exposures but it kinda worked, as a proof of concept. I need steadier hands. K-7 & Irix 150mm f./2.8.

[pkboy]

This spider is eating well (Stinkbug this time)

Same spider from: Sad Grasshopper (and a spider!) - PentaxForums.com

[Philoslothical]

Hoverfly in a chicory flower.



Horsefly? I think. It looks a little different than the ones that usually try to bite me. I love its eyes.

[KC0PET]

[TER-OR]

Those Dolichopodidae Long-Legged Flies are great subjects. I've never got one in flight, eve by accident.

[KC0PET]

Those Dolichopodidae Long-Legged Flies are great subjects. I've never got one in flight, eve by accident.

Well I decided to try the pop up flash for another bug. So when I turned and shot this one I noticed that it took off when the flash went off. Sometimes it would land right away, sometimes it would fly a bit and land. But also I guess there is a short pre-flash that goes off, so in most of the shots, the fly was in the air. This was the only one that came out useable.

[WPRESTO]

Hoverfly in a chicory flower.



Horsefly? I think. It looks a little different than the ones that usually try to bite me. I love its eyes.

That might be a "striped horsefly" = Tabanus lineola. I put a photo-print of one, head-on view - in the photo section of the Town Hall exhibit during our annual town fair. I overheard people discussing how I had managed to paint the eyes that way. I have a scan of the original chrome in the digital files someplace. I'll try to find it and post here ASAP.

I cannot find a scan of the chrome taken back in the '90s. Perhaps I did not scan that image. I did find this face-on image of a striped horsefly, a dead specimen so the colors are dull and there's a lot of dust on the eyes.

[pkboy]

Was standing next to this bush and heard buzzing inside it. On the reverse side I saw this...

[Philoslothical]

That might be a "striped horsefly" = Tabanus lineola. I put a photo-print of one, head-on view - in the photo section of the Town Hall exhibit during our annual town fair. I overheard people discussing how I had managed to paint the eyes that way. I have a scan of the original chrome in the digital files someplace. I'll try to find it and post here ASAP.

I cannot find a scan of the chrome taken back in the '90s. Perhaps I did not scan that image. I did find this face-on image of a striped horsefly, a dead specimen so the colors are dull and there's a lot of dust on the eyes.

Very cool photo. I can't even imagine trying to do macro with film. I found some of my microscopic horse fly stuff for you. It's all about the eyes for me, the rest of them is well, just another fly. The first one is followed by a clip of the focus stack playing through as a gif. Farther down there are a couple with pollen stuck on or near the eye, one with a single butterfly scale stuck to the pollen. I love going after the little structures I find on top of little structures.

Apparently there are a hundred species of horse flies in Ontario, alone, so I've decided I'm not concerned with an ID. I cleared up my confusion though. They're sexually dimorphic, and only the males have these huge gorgeous eyes. This explains why the bitey ones are plainer looking regardless of species. I collected these along roadsides while searching for felled butterflies.



Video here. I can't figure out how to embed it here, sorry.







I'm not sure what it's called, but this last one is an example of the naturally occurring flaw at the "corner" of a horse fly's eye. They have a small cleft there, and it's more pronounced in some individuals. You can see the dimpling in the eye cells as they're partially dried. They're nice, iridescent spheres while alive, but they rapidly deteriorate. I try to shoot them the same day I find them if I want good colour. The specimen in the top photo was much fresher, for comparison.

[WPRESTO]

Very cool photo. I can't even imagine trying to do macro with film..

FYI: The horsefly portrait I posted was a digital short stack, not a scan from a chrome that I was trying to find. The chrome was a live specimen which I captured, put into a clear container with a lid, I introduced a drop of molasses and when the fly settled to eat I gently opened the lid and took a couple pictures. That's an incomplete description of the set-up.

BTW: What objective(s) do you use on your microscope rig? I also have a microscope rig with several objectives but I haven't been doing such deep macro for several years.

[Philoslothical]

FYI: The horsefly portrait I posted was a digital short stack, not a scan from a chrome that I was trying to find. The chrome was a live specimen which I captured, put into a clear container with a lid, I introduced a drop of molasses and when the fly settled to eat I gently opened the lid and took a couple pictures. That's an incomplete description of the set-up.

BTW: What objective(s) do you use on your microscope rig? I also have a microscope rig with several objectives but I haven't been doing such deep macro for several years.

It's still a very cool photo. That's an interesting use of bait, too. I'll have to give that some thought. I source all of my bugs as roadkills. I hike along, and sometimes I divert into the bush where it still exists, but mainly I scan the shoulder of the road for felled butterflies and other insects.



My objectives are not good. It's an old Swift 960 from 1982, and it's just fine as the old high school level microscope it is, but it's not meant for art. At this point I think I've honestly pushed it about as much as I can. I have better objectives incoming, they're (I think) a generic infinity PLAN APO model, but their tracking has been in limbo for weeks and I'm on the verge of declaring them lost. I selected them because they were fairly inexpensive and because I needed RMS thread objectives to use them with my old Swift. I'm watching for a used metallurgical microscope I can afford, which will be difficult but will probably turn up eventually. I want to try epi-illumination on my butterfly scales.

If you have any suggestions for affordable RMS thread objectives that would be better than I have, or any advice on oculars, please shoot me a PM so we can chat about it without cluttering up the thread.

Speaking of which, here's a bug I found the other day, just to continue things on. If I were going to caption this it would be something like "This is My flower!"

[WPRESTO]

Speaking of which, here's a bug I found the other day, just to continue things on. If I were going to caption this it would be something like "This is My flower!"

Ambush bug. I have quite a few images of those. They cooperate by not moving when a macro lens looms close.

[Philoslothical]

They are very tolerant subjects! I've noticed that, too. I don't think the one I shot will have much luck on that flower though. Usually I see them blending in with the Queen Anne's Lace.

I'm running low on recent photos, but here are a couple of more ordinary flies. I've no idea what type. They were all over on that particular day.

[WPRESTO]

They are very tolerant subjects! I've noticed that, too. I don't think the one I shot will have much luck on that flower though. Usually I see them blending in with the Queen Anne's Lace.

I'm running low on recent photos, but here are a couple of more ordinary flies. I've no idea what type. They were all over on that particular day.

That first image is spot-on!

Here's the horsefly image taken back in the Film Era. This one is alive and feeding on a drop of molasses, so the eyes have their natural, vivid colors and are almost completely clean (I see one dust speck). SCAN from a chrome. BTW: Almost certainly taken with a 90mm f2.5 Tokina macro.