Robber Fly enjoying some Hover Fly juice

Images of undisturbed subjects in their natural environment. All subject types.

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Troels
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Robber Fly enjoying some Hover Fly juice

Post by Troels »

Found this Robber Fly sitting on a compost barrel with its prey.
I ran for the camera and luckily the lunch continued for a couple of minutes.

Focus stack of 48 exposures at f/2.8 and 1/200 sec. Zerene stacker with PMax. No retouching. Handheld, natural light.
Rovflue_m_Svirreflue_kompost_07aug21_PMax485-532_rez1024.jpg
See full size with details on flickr

This picture could not have been taken without stacking. If I had used a high f-nuber to get sufficient depth of field in a single picture, the immage would probably have been shaken, or very noisy,

[Edit: Got help with the ID. It is a Neoitamus cyanurus. It has got a danish name which translates into: Black Footed Wood Robber Fly. Rather common in Denmark]
Troels Holm, biologist (retired), environmentalist, amateur photographer.
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lothman
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Re: Robber Fly enjoying some Hover Fly juice

Post by lothman »

EXCELLENT =D>

Adalbert
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Re: Robber Fly enjoying some Hover Fly juice

Post by Adalbert »

very nice :smt038

MarkSturtevant
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Re: Robber Fly enjoying some Hover Fly juice

Post by MarkSturtevant »

Wow, that is a fine picture! Well done!
Mark Sturtevant
Dept. of Still Waters

leonardturner
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Re: Robber Fly enjoying some Hover Fly juice

Post by leonardturner »

A most excellent image, made more even impressive by it having been handheld!

Leonard

Troels
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Re: Robber Fly enjoying some Hover Fly juice

Post by Troels »

Thanks to all for positive comments!

Leonard:
Handhelding is not really 'free hand'. In this case it is faciliated by supporting both hands on the lid of the barrel!
And also the in-camera automatic focus bracketing is a great advantage. A whole sequence of 50 frames is made in just 4-5 secs.

Even so only 2 out of 17 bracketing sequences were usable. The rest suffering from missing frames, too much camera movement or shifting light (the wind moving the shading branches).

I have now taken the time to finish the other usable one. It has perhaps less documentary value as less of the robber fly is shown, but I like it, because i find the background and the overal lightning more visually pleasant.
Rovflue_m_svirreflue_2021-08-09_PMax654-687_rez1024.jpg
See details on Flickr

For those of you enjoying stereos I made both of them for cross-eyed viewing:
Rovflue_2021-08-09_PMax485-532_Stereo.jpg
Rovflue2_2021-08-09_PMax654-87_Stereo_rez1024t.jpg
Troels Holm, biologist (retired), environmentalist, amateur photographer.
Visit my Flickr albums

Beatsy
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Re: Robber Fly enjoying some Hover Fly juice

Post by Beatsy »

Outstanding. Stacking done proper!

I am soooo jealous of your in-camera focus bracketing though. I've got a little better at doing it manually (moving camera or focus ring while shooting a burst) but only because I had to. Sony really have a blind spot on this one yet it would be so easy to implement in s/w. All I want is for focus to advance by a preset amount after every shutter release (especially in drive mode). That's all. But nooooo...

On the bright side, my keeper rate is similar to what you reported for this set, and for the same reasons. So that gives me a little comfort - I'm doing OK.... :D

zook
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Re: Robber Fly enjoying some Hover Fly juice

Post by zook »

Extraordinarily recorded moments, the second shot in my opinion even in a better pose!!!

Sippyjug
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Re: Robber Fly enjoying some Hover Fly juice

Post by Sippyjug »

Job well done.

Dalantech
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Re: Robber Fly enjoying some Hover Fly juice

Post by Dalantech »

Excellent shot!

rjlittlefield
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Re: Robber Fly enjoying some Hover Fly juice

Post by rjlittlefield »

Nice!

I don't see that anybody has mentioned the red thing yet. A mite, perhaps?

--Rik

Dalantech
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Re: Robber Fly enjoying some Hover Fly juice

Post by Dalantech »

rjlittlefield wrote:
Sat Aug 21, 2021 8:02 am
Nice!

I don't see that anybody has mentioned the red thing yet. A mite, perhaps?

--Rik
Looks like some sort of parasite.

Troels
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Re: Robber Fly enjoying some Hover Fly juice

Post by Troels »

Yes, it does indeed look like a blood sucking mite.
I forgot to mention it here.
But on my Flickr presentation I wrote:
"I red blood sucking mite is joining the party."
Troels Holm, biologist (retired), environmentalist, amateur photographer.
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DavyC
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Re: Robber Fly enjoying some Hover Fly juice

Post by DavyC »

Super Shot/shots. Well seen and put together.

Troels
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Re: Robber Fly enjoying some Hover Fly juice

Post by Troels »

Thanks for all comments!
I appreciate it.
Troels Holm, biologist (retired), environmentalist, amateur photographer.
Visit my Flickr albums

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