how to shoot macro pictures of flies

okay, i have an assignment from a magazine to write a story about the

types of flies that bug horses. any tips on how to make them stay

still enough to photograph? all help is much appreciated!

Freeze one? Seriously, if you could get one really cold without frosting the surroundings, that might work. That's a tough one, taking the "never work with children or animals" message to a whole new, tiny level.

Put then in the refrigerator for awhile. The cold slows them down (until they warm up again)

Freezing is for biologists and taxonomists. I personally do not have much regard for amateur nature shooters who manipulate their subjects.

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Have patience and be ready to invest a lot of time, you'll eventually get the shots you want without ever needing to "tweak" your subject.

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I shot this on film and did not need to refrigerate. What am I doing wrong?

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Flies spread disease. Keep yours zipped!

Flies, bees, wasps, ... all draw some of their motive power from insolation (incident sunlight warms them and gives them energy) so shooting on a cloudy day will slow them down and make them less reactive. Also, they are not terribly reactive to motion, but they are highly reactive to changes in insolation. So if your shadow crosses them, then they spook. So I would seriously suggest using flash on a cool to warm cloudy. When it is hotter they are harder to work with. Also cloudy weather makes your shadows softer (again lessening their reactions to your motion).

 

Hence cool (but not too cool or they do not come out) cloudy weather (or a partly cloudy day shooting at cloudy moments) with flash is the way to go. Also, you might find a small flash diffuser useful (i.e., http://www.lumiquest.com/lq925.htm ) so your flash is hundreds of times the size of your subject rather than tens of times its size. The softer light will diffuse highlights which will help you capture highly specular details like their eyes.

 

For getting really close a macro lens or a reversed 50 mm can be helpful too.

 

hope this helps,

 

Sean

Alex!

Hello Nathan. As a horse vet and an amateur insect photograph I should be the right person to answer your question ;0)

If you want to take pictures of the fly on the horse, sorry to say it want be easy, at least a close picture of them. The horse maybe will not collaborate too much. The easier way to do it is trying to go to the stables early in the morning. Her are the flies more sleepy and so easier to catch them. I suppose you have a macro lens or at least a 200-300 mm with a good close-lens (double spherical macro lens +3, f. ex.) This tele has the advantage that you don't need to get to close to them to get a reasonable good picture, and it will be easier to get a picture of them on the horse.

Try to get a picture and the horse while trying to catch them with the tail; it will help to explain how they irritate the horse. They also bite themselves when the fly bits. This is very typical and very illustrative.

About the technique to the photo, if you donﾒt have experience in macro, let me tell you that with a normal TTL flash out of the camera you can get very good picture. You donﾒt need anymore. Just remember to light the fly from the top, and you will get nice pictures. Remember to put the flash in +ﾽ, +1, the flies are dark and they use to be better a little bit overexposed.

Be lucky and remember: all the horses kick!

The finest Horse and Fly shot I have seen is from Douglas Herr.

 

May he he will post it here with the equipment he used.

<I>Flies, bees, wasps, ... all draw some of their motive power from insolation (incident

sunlight warms them and gives them energy) so shooting on a cloudy day will slow them

down and make them less reactive. Also, they are not terribly reactive to motion, but they

are highly reactive to changes in insolation. </i><P>

 

They are extremely sensitive to motion (depending on species). Most are a bit more

sluggish when body temperature is low, so working on cool days may help. Refrigeration

can also help, but the trouble is that a chilled insect often looks .... well, like a chilled

insect, rather than a normal, alert one. <P>

 

Technically, they get no motive power at all from insolation. Power for flight is derived

from chemical potential energy (various metabolic fuels, mainly simple sugars or lipids).

All they get from sunlight is heat, which is not 'useful' energy in biological systems

because it can't do any chemical or mechanical work. Higher body temperature does make

chemical reactions proceed faster, so power output (energy consumed per unit time)

increases. That's why many insects can't fly at low body temperature: they can't produce

enough power in the flight muscles to get airborn. But quite a few flies, bees, and wasps

(other other flying insects) are 'endothermic' like mammals: even without insolation they

can shiver to warm up the flight muscles to working temperature even if environmental

temperatures are quite cold. Some bumblebees (and moths and beetles) can use shivering

to warm up to flight temperature (30-35 degrees C) at ambient temperatures close to

freezing.

Arnab Pratim Das:

 

You ask what you are doing wrong? Photographically, nothing at all. Your portfolio suggests you are quite accomplished at insect macro photography, and I find many of your images rather beautiful, perhaps now you might spend some of that patience on others, and invest some time in diminishing that streak of cockiness displayed in the above post. You could have suggested patience without the snide remarks.

 

I should also mention that this "amateur" wouldn't manipulate a subject in such a manner. I could see the need if I were on a short assignment deadline.

Joshua Szulecki,

 

I'll ignore your flame-bait and get straight to the topic at hand.

 

My response was directed at the post suggesting refrigerating subject before photographing them. Read up on what John Shaw has to say on this subject in his book Closeups in Nature if you haven't already. I undertsand flies are abundant and may be considered a pest too, so there might be little regret in harming them. However -- if this suggestion is extrapolated to more delicate and rarer insects and other small nature subjects, that amounts to a crime -- regardless of deadline.

 

Perhaps you wonder hy do I wake up at dawn each autumn day and go out in the field to shoot dewy subjects when I could achieve the same effect with a refridgerator, water atomizer and captured subjects?

 

The general suggestion of refrigerating subjects should NOT belong to a nature forum. That may have been a popular act among nature photographers decades ago but not any more. The days of freezing insects and drugging aquarium fish for photographic purposes are long gone.

And of course I apologize for my cockiness but that's the only way I was able to express what I had to say. My bad. Thanks,

Arnab Pratim Das:

 

Regarding freezing/refrigerating insects for photography... You are of course correct, it is a immoral behavior and should not be condoned in any way. My post was half in jest, and I sincerely hope that the original poster does/has not chosen to do this.

 

Regarding the cockiness, don't worry about it. You feel very stongly about not injuring living things, and that's fine. One of my major pet peeves is the way people behave differently on the internet than in regular verbal conversation, and I apologize for the distraction in the thread. Let's get back to taking pictures.

Joshua, no problems -- thanks for reminding me I need to tone down this kind of passionate verbal delivery that sometimes borders on rudeness. Sorry for that. <shake hands> :-)

For what is worth I would like to add one more vote for not trying to refrigerate any creatures for purpose of taking photographs. No matter: insects, reptiles, amphibians, rare or common, pests or not. Welfare of animals are important because soon we may have less and less species living close to us. But even if this factor is not important to few (hope it is only a few) photographs of chilled animals are worthless in my opinion. What is a purpose of taking them? Market is already saturated with beautiful portraits taken in natural settings. What is benefit of the photo of half-alive specimen placed in unnatural pose. As an entomologist in the past I can perfectly understand others who are fascinated with insects. But I am also very disappointed that most of so called macro photos are showing just part of the insect and magnification ratio seems to be an ultimate goal. If one decide to study selected insects, and is not only trying to get a head-shot of anything available and not flying away, one can find a fantasy land with many incredible behaviors not even noticed by most people. But to observe and photograph that one have to learn to be patient and let the insects act naturally. I wish I have more time to explore more of that world again. Best regards, Mark

If your camera uses a pre-flash to determine the flash exposure (as in my Canon 20D) then you should de-activate that feature (use manual flash mode). The pre-flash spooks the fly and will ruine your shot every time!<div></div>