Fly on White Lily, a photo from Cheshire, England

Photographer's Note

Although I am not an expert on flies, I think that this is a hover fly. The white lily is in our garden.

This was taken using the Optio's supermacro mode. This mode is too close to permit the use of the built-in flash but, anyway, I wanted to incorporate the sun's back-lighting of the lily. I have used Neat Image and contrast masking.

eleparc, hispic, natc, jafadabret has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

Liora (1857) 2003-11-28 13:10

Amazing! the colors are so vivid and the fly looks like it's hovering in mid-air carrying food.
VERY well captured.

Didi (61589) 2003-11-28 13:29

La scиne donne l'impression que l'insecte vole puisque ses ailes sont dйployйes, le lйger flou donne aussi une impression de mouvement. Trиs bonne composition.

The scene gives the impression which the insect is fliyng since its wings are spread, the light blur gives also an impression of movement. Very good composition.

scalerman (26900) 2003-11-28 13:36

amazing work with a relatively inexpensive camera. this shows that it's not so much the camera as the skill of the user. cheers!

chartwigp (152) 2003-11-28 14:10

EN: (attempt) The colors are highly saturated and contrast with the pastel background to give a great depth to the pic ! Thank you Mother Nature for putting such a masterpiece in our garden, and Congrats to the shooter for having been invited in the life of an insect ! More depth of field would have made me believe it's pure computer graphics !
FR: Les couleurs trиs saturйes et qui contrastent avec le fond pastel aident а ressentir un effet de relief ! Merci mиre Nature de mettre de tels chef d'oeuvres dans notre jardin, et Bravo au photographe pour avoir sы se faire inviter dans l'intimitй d'un insecte ! Plus de profondeur de champs aurait donnй l'impression d'une image de synthиse ! Comme ca, c'est parfait !

RobBrown (1797) 2003-11-28 14:37

Yes it is a Hoverfly,composition is well seen, its head and the lilly stamen are very nicely sharp, the wings and tail are not, there is a halo round the tail which to me means a touch too much sharpening. The use if you have PS of burntool & sharpen tool both set at low lvels 12 - 20% with a soft brush may need several tries till you might be happy with the result, (always work on a copy to keep original clean). Have a go with the original before using the neat image

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chalcone (761) 2003-11-28 14:43

Beautiful macro ... but with caveat. I would have wanted to see this less-saturated, though. Blue seems to be bleeding into the haloed areas of the thorax.

joseelias (0) 2003-11-28 14:48

I've never tried macro shots but this one inspires me! Fantastic colors and details! What can I say more?

zto (268) 2003-11-28 15:08

This is absolutly great. Never could have guesed that flies could actually be beautifull and soo colourfull.

Amazing.

Georges (11185) 2003-11-28 15:38

Encore une merveilleuse macro.J'aime le dйtaille de ces ailes avec ce leger flou qui nous fait voir un mouvement d'aile. Les couleurs sont splendides bravo.

Keitht (1342) 2003-11-28 15:39

Nicely framed with the background thrown just enough out of focus so that it isn't a distraction but is still identifiable. The colours in the hoverfly are amazing. Although the far end of the body and the back edge of the wings are slightly out of focus the detail is still visible.

SavioCastro (601) 2003-11-28 15:39

Sua foto possui uma suavidade de cores que encantam. enquadramento perfeito.

Ebbe (9625) 2003-11-28 15:51

Amazing what those little cameras can cope with. And your part of it is also done very well, a nice diagonal composition that leads us through the picture and a perfect DOF. The color combination is stunning but maybe there is a slight blue tint that could be removed.

Porteplume (4036) 2003-11-28 16:47

The, somehow, fluorescent colours are really amazing, and the transparency is wonderful. Quite a different macro as I used to see till now...
I can understand that you wanted to include the "pink touch" at the left bottom, but I'm not sure the composition framing is in balance there.
Anyway, you made a really great capture, well done Martin!

dominique (11414) 2003-11-28 17:43

Impressive macro photograph, that it is well done, the colors are astonishing, really interesting.

milloup (1829) 2003-11-28 18:34

Brilliant capture, I like the way his snout (or whatever it's called) is covered in the pollen he's gobbling up ;-). Don't know if it's from being inside the flower, but his eyes seem violet, and usually these chaps have dark brownish-looking eyes.

hantulaut (3441) 2003-11-29 6:05

i love it. Truly nice composition. Wow.

carper (96) 2003-11-29 7:35

Martin

What can I say. I like your makro shot a lot. It is so complete.

manny (22032) 2003-11-29 13:10

Superb picture: colours are very rich, DOF creates a magical feeling and composition enhances the distinct character of the subject.

flip89 (3418) 2003-11-30 4:27

The best closeup I have seen in a long time.

CoolDan (2516) 2003-12-08 19:46

Quelle nettetй, L'insecte est trиs clair et kes couleurs sont superbes. Fйlicitations Martin.

marcchia (210) 2004-01-23 0:10

Beautiful shot. The colors are so real. Amazing.

optic (0) 2004-03-15 22:35

Spectacular picture and color, i can't believe it how did you get this one ?
Congratulations,

eleparc (24063) 2004-04-04 14:12

just another Waouh! words are missing to describe the beauty of those supermacro shots martin! thanks for sharing:-)

sn00zie (2384) 2004-08-27 5:58

nice details and dof. colors are beautiful.. Very well captured Martin

natc (315) 2005-05-31 4:25

impressing! the colors and drawings of the nature are really amazing sometimes, like tropical fishes, but it works with insects too. thanks 4 this shot

jafadabret (56501) 2005-07-06 2:11

Merveille que cet insecte avec des couleurs superbes et les ailes dйployйes. Une macro trиs rйussie.

rajhema (1873) 2005-12-05 16:46

Excellent close up Marting. It came out very well.

Photo Information

Copyright: Martin Currie (martin) (1242)
Genre: МЕСТА
Medium: ЦВЕТНОЙ
Date Taken: 2003-07-00
Categories: ПРИРОДА
Camera: Pentax Optio 550
Exposure: f/4, 1/256 секунд
Версия: Оригинальная версия
Темы: Fleurs et papillons, Insects - Insectes, Abejas, avispas y otros - Bee, wasp and other [view contributor(s)]
Date Submitted: 2003-11-28 13:00
Избранное: 5 [view]