New Species! - _TNY_9302
This is a robberfly - but it looks a bit different from the typical ones. It kind of remind me of the Choerades genus like this one: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/51385827040/ - but not quite exactly like it.
That's because it belongs to a genus of which I have never even seen a specimen of before which was a blast. Say hello to Cyrtopogon lateralis!
I was checking out the bee hotel to see if there were any cool guests there when this one landed on the outside.
I had the MP-E65mm on the camera at the moment - a lens that is unable to focus at *less* than 1:1 (at 101 mm / 4" away from the front element) so you can't really snap a safety shot from far away to at least get a half-descent shot. It's a get-in-close-or-not-at-all deal.
For my first attempt, the large diffuser scared it off, but to my amazement, it returned to the exact same spot ten seconds later. This time I got two shots off before it took off again - only to land a third time in the same place! For my final attempt, I managed a single shot before it took off for good.
Unfortunately, I had the flash intensity set much too high so all three shots were severely over-exposed - but since I shoot RAW, it was possible to recover a lot of detail and I think it looks surprisnigly good to be honest.
Just minutes after getting these shots, I stumbled on a second new species for me - this dragonfly: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/52215431872/i - so it was a pretty exciting day!
New Species! - _TNY_9302
This is a robberfly - but it looks a bit different from the typical ones. It kind of remind me of the Choerades genus like this one: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/51385827040/ - but not quite exactly like it.
That's because it belongs to a genus of which I have never even seen a specimen of before which was a blast. Say hello to Cyrtopogon lateralis!
I was checking out the bee hotel to see if there were any cool guests there when this one landed on the outside.
I had the MP-E65mm on the camera at the moment - a lens that is unable to focus at *less* than 1:1 (at 101 mm / 4" away from the front element) so you can't really snap a safety shot from far away to at least get a half-descent shot. It's a get-in-close-or-not-at-all deal.
For my first attempt, the large diffuser scared it off, but to my amazement, it returned to the exact same spot ten seconds later. This time I got two shots off before it took off again - only to land a third time in the same place! For my final attempt, I managed a single shot before it took off for good.
Unfortunately, I had the flash intensity set much too high so all three shots were severely over-exposed - but since I shoot RAW, it was possible to recover a lot of detail and I think it looks surprisnigly good to be honest.
Just minutes after getting these shots, I stumbled on a second new species for me - this dragonfly: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/52215431872/i - so it was a pretty exciting day!