Blue bottle fly

My very first living macro, a blue bottle fly resting on a fence in our garden. These flies are nastly little creatures, they feed on the wounded or dead and plant their eggs in their tissue to feed their larvae. You can recognize them by their blue metallic color and their relatively large size.

This photo is captured handheld and 70% cropped. It's not perfectly sharp, but it's a start. For the first time, I used my SB700 flash on my new macro lens. It's awesome. I had worries that the flash would be too close to the subject. I also expected directional problems since the flash is far above the lens. Both turn out to be non-issues. Everything just works automatically, the flash timing and strength all adjust to this lens and focal length.

comments (6)

Ludo Sak

Lion

Beautiful detail, nice colours and always those hollowpiped wings, so beautiful. Well done!
Did not know that about the flash, I'd guess it would not work too. Nice to hear that it does, though my extension rings do pass the signal the flash only knows my prime 50mm.
Funny thing: you had a 100mm macro? Your Exif tag says 105. Just wonderin'. Posted 13 years ago
1. Ferdy Christant
  
  Lion
  
  The Exif is correct in this case, I have a 105mm macro:
  
  http://www.ferdychristant.com/blog/resources/Photography/$FILE/macro3.png
  
  And yes, I was equally surprised with the flash working so perfectly. The SB700 really is astonishing, it adjusts itself to any situation so it seems without the need for manual overrides. Posted 13 years ago

Ludo Sak

Lion

Hoge ISO en macro is wel altijd lastig. Een druppeltje Ethanol verdooft m eventjes (onder een glas), daarna schijnt ie weer weg te vliegen zonder restlast. Istvan gebruikt dit ook voor extreme closeup maar dan iets meer met een definitief effect (jammer)
Oe that's dutch. Posted 13 years ago
1. Ferdy Christant
  
  Lion
  
  Other than noise I don't see why a higher ISO is a problem for macro? It lets in more light and thus improves the shutter speed and aperture one can select. Or am I missing something?
  
  By the way, the reason the ISO is relatively high here is that I'm still used to my auto ISO setting :) I set up my camera to have a maximum of 1/200s in shutter speed, afer which the camera selects the ISO needed to let in enough light. This brings the advantage of freely selecting an aperture whilst not worrying about the ISO and shutter speed. The reason I do it is because I almost always shoot handheld. It does lead to higher ISOs but most often they are manageable and a high ISO is still better than an unsharp photo.
  
  By the way, if I will "scene" a macro I'll probably limit myself to insects already dead. Posted 13 years ago

Ludo Sak

Lion

1:2.8 wow, that's very nice! Could you try making a picture with full zoom? Something with easy reference, like a daisy (if you have a grassy patch near) Just to show the effect on an image? Just wonderin', wow a real macro lens. Posted 13 years ago
1. Ferdy Christant
  
  Lion
  
  With full zoom you mean the smallest focus distance? I don't have a daisy near but will capture one as soon I see one. For now, just know that the depth of field at "full zoom" is tiny, like the size of the eye of a fly :)
  
  The working distance is then only a few cm, close to touching the subject. The purple flower photo I posted earlier can also be used as a reference. That flower in total is about 2cm in size, with the stems only a few mm. Posted 13 years ago, modified 13 years ago