Big Fly

[Ian Cassell]

I have no idea what this big guy really is. He's much bigger than a large housefly. I saw him sitting on a rock in my campground in Canyonlands NP.

Shot with my larger Macro Lens (Canon 400/5.6L) :)
Canon 7D
1/2500 sec f/7.1 ISO 400

Crop for composition and sharpening in CS6

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[Patrick Sparkman]

Ian, that is a Robber Fly. They eat other flies that they catch. I know you were trying to get a good shot to figure out what it is, but the light is pretty harsh. An you have the subject right in the middle of the frame. You should take some off the bottom and the LHS to give a more pleasing composition. It would also be good to clone out the bright OOF spot in the top LHS. Thanks for sharing, and keep 'em coming.

[nzmacro]

Patrick is right, but as far as the Robber fly goes, its sharp and showing good details. Excellent in fact with that 400mm macro lens :w3. Good work and the shot is worth Patrick's suggestions IMO.

Danny.

[Allen Sparks]

Hi Ian, interesting subject you caught here. I agree with the comments above and don't have much to add. nice find!

Allen

[Jason Stander]

All the nits covered... good capture of a robber fly... I call them the LIONS of the insect world... WD Ian!:w3

[Ian Cassell]

Thanks all for commenting. Here's a quick re-do to see if I'm on the right track. Cropped and got rid of bright spot. Selected out fly and shaded BG a bit. Did this on the JPEG, so plan on going back and re-working the RAW file.

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[nzmacro]

Very well done on that crop. I use different software to most so this might not be the case for you Ian (Photoimpact). I would cut back on the brightness (Lightroom: cut the high lights back with the slider) and add a little contrast, maybe darken the blacks. That would give this a little boost and get rid of the brightness around the robber fly.

All the best Ian and IMO only. Stall a darn good shot !!

Danny.

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Ian. Yup, a robber fly. You have good suggestions already so I won't repeat. Your repost is an improvement and I would agree with Danny about toning down the brightness a little. The long "pointy" tip of the abdomen indicates that this is a female - in case you were interested. :S3: