Thanks to Rondec for starting this thread, and congrats on the new baby girl! I always enjoy seeing other's yearly favorite shots, and lots of great work has already been posted.
For myself, I think I shot less last year than any other year since I started getting into photography. On the one hand, there just seemed to be so few Odonatas (dragonflies and damselflies, my favorite subjects) around last summer, and on the other hand I've been spending more and more time on my bike, so fewer photo outings. Also, it seems to be getting harder and harder to get a shot that is interesting and not simply a repeat of a shot I took before... Yet, I still think I took some pretty OK pictures, and here are my nine favorites.
First a couple of springtime bee shots. I find bees that are actively pollinating to be very difficult subjects, because they are so active and constantly moving around that it's super hard to nail focus, get decent framing and nice subject pose. But I think this one fits the bill (though it's "just" a common honey bee).
Then also sometimes you find a bee that is taking a break. This one only allowed a few frames before flying off. Much smaller than a honey bee. I just think it looks great with its thick mustache.
For this one, I would have liked to have a bit more magnification, but the tiny spider was moving around and I would have simply lost it from sight if I'd changed my lens setup, so I just shot with what I had. What is great about this shot is that the spider captured a collembola and in the shot where I nailed focus, you can still clearly recognize the super tiny critter hanging upside down in the spider's mouth. A moment later the collembola was just an unrecognizable blob of matter. (BTW, that was pretty much pure luck, as I didn't even see the collembola until I looked at the shots once back home.) I don't think there are
that many shots of jumping spider predation of collembola out there...
These are pretty much the tiniest hoverflies in my neck of the woods, and it's always nice to get a (ahem) behavioral shot.
(Note also the strategically situated wing obscuring the background!) This one is also a focus stack - the wind made it really hard to shoot, but this couple were super cooperative.
This one is just a common fly, but really my type of shot.
Conversely here, this is more or less just a documentary photo, but of a species I'd never seen before. And it turns out to be the only sighting of this species in Quebec reported on
Bugguide!
And another hoverfly I really like:
We planted milkweed in the front yard. Didn't spot any monarchs this year, but I did see and photograph this Red Milkweed Beetle. Tough to get both halves of the split eye in focus!
Finally, I think this is one of my favorite flake shots ever (though I'm sometimes tempted to redo the post on it to make it pop a bit more)...