Fly (?) on Rabbitbrush

[Diane Miller]

There were clouds and even some light rain in the eastern Sierra last week, washing out the first two days of my planned shooting in the bristlecone forest. Fortunately it cleared up just in time, but in the meantime the soft light made the blooming rabbitbrush absolutely glow. I was trying to find some way to shoot it when this volunteer came along to help.

It's not the best pose but it didn't want to sit still, and flew after a few minutes.

Canon 5D Mk III, Sigma 180 f/3.5L macro, ISO 400, f/13, 1/200. Tripod, rear button focus with manual focus tweaking. About 20% cropped off the right, minor BG cloning.

C&C always appreciated.

[Nancy Bell]

I like the pose of this fly. I clearly see its eyes, and also those cool bristles at the other end! I also like the rabbitbrush blossoms clearly focused in the foreground and the rear blossoms, OOF but extending upwards in the same direction as those tail bristles. The distant bkgd is lovely, echoing the same glowing yellows. In my experience, rabbitbrush attracts many insects.

[Jonathan Ashton]

I think the crop works well and you have a nicely composed image. I would be tempted to apply a little more sharpening on the fly, I think it is well focused but a little more sharpening will help isolate it even more.

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Diane. Nothing wrong with this pose - we get a good overall look at the fly plus those interesting "feet" and the very long proboscis. I also like the off-center and slight diagonal positioning of the fly. Nice sharpness and DOF, good comp and background, and the yellows are handled well. This is very well done!

[Randy Stout]

Diane:

I think the pose works well also. Since you didn't get to do the bristlecones, you got a bristly fly instead. Agree with comp and color comments, and yes, I would be tempted to sharpen the fly just a bit more.

Cheers

Randy

[Diane Miller]

Thanks for the comments, everyone! I will look at more sharpening on the fly. I may not have sharpened the JPEG here after exporting from LR.

I did get to the bristlecones, just not that day. I've posted some night shots of the Milky Way in Landscapes, and some infrareds in OOTB. Still going thru them... But the fly was a nice bonus!