Tachinid fly (spp.)

[Gail Spitler]

Hi All
The last few days, I have been photographing bees of various kinds and they are frequently accompanied by flies also of various species. I believe this critter is in the tachinid family. If anyone can identify it, I'd appreciate the info.
All C & C's much appreciated.
Cheers
Gail
Canon 40D with 100mm plus 12mm ext, 1/350sec at f/4, pattern metering, 0 EV, aperture priority, ISO 250, HH

[Desmond Chan]

I've never seen a fly like that...with a shiny golden face.

I like this photo in general, but I think something can be done to enhance the focus a bit. At the very least, I think the flower is a bit too bright. With that, I darkened the background and the flower, added vignetting and blur, added a teeny tiny degree of contrast to the fly, and ended with a bit more sharpening. Understandably my personal preferences have played a role here :)

[Gail Spitler]

Thanks Desmond. Good ideas.
Cheers
Gail

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Repost is on the right track IMO. The FG is too dominate in the OP for my taste.

Gail, I like what you are doing but in OP my eye is pulled to OOF flower and distracts from main subject. Challenging exposure at 1/350 (HH) love the use of tubes with the 100 for flexibility - on balance very creative.

[Lance Peters]

Hi Gail - desmonds repost is a definite improvement - the bright flower was taking attention away from the main subject.
Looking forward to seeing more :)

[Gus Cobos]

Hi Gail,
All of the techs. and good advise given, the thing that distracts the eye is the bright OOF portion of the flower in the foreground...lookinf forward to your next one...:cool:

[Alfred Forns]

Excellent re post Desmond !!!!

When using extension tubes would try stopping down if possible, dof is minimal !!! Also agree on the foreground element being dominant, in this case can try shooting from above to if possible !!

[Gail Spitler]

Thanks guys.... I guess I was concentrating so hard on the fly that I didn't even look at the foreground ... duh. And thanks for the suggestion about stopping down with extension tubes.
Cheers
Gail

[Oscar Zangroniz]

Great base image Gail. Lots of details in the fly. Excellent re post by Desmond.
Congrats

[Thanaboon Jearkjirm]

You sure have lots of details on the fly, this would have been a killer if the OOF flower doesn't take attention away from the fly. I might also try noise reduction on the background a bit. Never gold face fly before, thank you for sharing.

[Harold Davis]

desmond nailed the repost!! solid base image. can make into a winner!!