Hoverfly on Michaelmas Daisy 2

[Frank Clark]

D80 & 18-200 + Kenko 1.4 TC + Canon 500D close-up lens.
F8 @ 1/125 - 200 ISO.
Taken in Leigh, Lancs.UK on 7th August on a sunny afternoon.
I look forward to C & C.
Thank you.
Frank

[Ed Vatza]

Hi Frank,

I see the hoverfly as the focal point here. But you do have 99.99999% of the flower here as well. So I would like to see better focus on the flower. Stopping down to somewhere in the f/11 to f/16 range could have helped that. While I think the hoverfly looks good, stopping down would also would have helped to focus on the wings and back of the body a little more. That said, I also would like to see the flower raised a bit in the frame to bring in the remaining .00001 of the flower.

[Julie Kenward]

If I saw this and didn't know better I'd swear it was a composite image because that fly looks huge in proportion to the flower. However...it does give him an eery 3-D effect that I really like!

I'm with Ed on the flower, though...either blur all but a small portion where the fly is or get it all in focus. As it is, it just looks a bit fake and that's too bad because the color is gorgeous and the fly is wonderful!

[Frank Clark]

Thank you for your comments. I realised when I viewed this and several shots that I took at the same time that the DOF was too shallow and I should have used F16. Missing the bottom of the flower was lazy cropping as my attention was concentrated on the hoverfly.
This hoverfly is a wasp mimic ( Myathropa florae ) size c. 15mm and the flower is a michaelmas daisy which is an introduced domestic flower that has spread into the wild ( Aster novi-belgii ) size c 25-30mm.
I have done separate editing on the hoverfly ( sharpening, saturation & contrast ) and the background ( darkening & noise reduction as well as cloning out some leaves ). This, coupled with the shallow DOF, might give an unintentional 3d effect.
Frank

[Mike Moats]

Hey Frank, I like the look of this image. it has a little bit of an illustrated look. Would have liked to seen the tip of the flower petal in the frame on the bottom. Well done.