Seconded!Insect photos in flight are not impossible. Just incredibly bloody hard to do!
I spent some time when I first got my macro lens getting shots of a hoverfly in flight.
http://davidavid.whatsbeef.net/hoverfly.jpg is a good one I got from the couple of hours I spent with the little guy. My biggest problem was actually that it had ruddy fast reflexes - it'd actually have time to react in the time from the beginning of the mirror noise to exposure... so in many shots it was out of frame, or at least off-centre. What I really want to do is use a high-speed flash to further freeze the motion of wings etc. There is a particular bee that comes out in spring that I'll hopefully try this out on.
I also have a not-bad photo of a dragonfly in flight, taken with the aid of the massive working distance the tamron 500/8 gives you.
Your photo is quite good, especially the subject matter and pose! Well done.
David
The example here is not sharp, but I was pretty happy with it.
Next year my aim is to get a shot like this sharp and well exposed.
http://www.heritageservices.com.au/Insect%20Macros/images/Macro%20Insect s%2022_jpg.jpg
This was shot 'off the hip' so too speak, with an *ist D and 100mm FA macro. More reflex than anything else. The focus of the lens must have been pretty close to where the critters were before I hit the go button, as the 100mm FA macro is not known as one of the worlds quickest focusing lenses!
Cheers
Shaun
Dr. Shaun Canning
Cultural Heritage Services
Lawrence Way, Karratha, Western Australia, 6714
0414-967644 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.heritageservices.com.au
-----Original Message-----
From: David Nelson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, May 18, 2004 4:16 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: PAW - Sugar Glider
G'day,
Another recent photo I've taken in the garden. I'm lucky enough to have a few sugar gliders in the area, and often get a couple feeding on an acacia tree in my back yard. I was more-or-less testing to see how I'd go with flash and my tamron 500/8 mirror at night. But first, the URL
(-:
http://davidavid.whatsbeef.net/glider.jpg
I'll be the first to list the faults of the photo: - Tail cropped out. - angle (shot from below) not great - fairly un-interesting behaviour. - Just doesn't "do it" for me. Does it do it for anyone?
Nevertheless, it's an extremely cute critter (they are only a bit bigger
than a largish rat in body size), and I plan to follow this up by taking
more shots when the opportunities arise.
I would have backed up a little, but I was in the bushes as it was (-: Focussing was uber hard (torchlight, slow lens etc make for an extremely
dark viewfinder), and I think this is the only one I took that is in
focus.
I'd say lighting is okay, I used PTTL with the AF360, 400ASA and it seems to have performed very well.
I actually would have liked a shorter lens too... 200 or 300 would be ideal, and of course, faster would be very nice.
I have some vague plan to try and get shots of these things mid-glide one day (this is sort of on par with my idea to get HSS shots of insects
in flight (-:).
Grateful for comments, as always! David
