Macro and Flora Image of the Week for the week ending July 6th, 2012: Patrick Sparkman - Black-and-Yellow Mud Dauber Close-up

Congratulations Patrick!!!

Yesterday, we had this Black and Yellow-Mud-Dauber get into the house. There are a bunch of these around, so it happens every few days. I caught him (or her...I can't tell) and slowed him down a little in the refrigerator. Then put it on a Butterfly Bush flower that they really love, and took a bunch of shots. I liked this one the best, over the classic side pose. I also got some on a white surface.

Shot with Canon 5DIII, MP-E 65 approximately 2.5X magnification, MT-24 Diffused +2/3, 580 EXII -1 1/3 as slave on the background, f16 1/200 sec ISO 200, very slight crop, processed in Lightroom 4 and Nik Color Pro, removed OOF purple flower in ULH corner using quick mask in PS5.

Thanks for looking. All comments welcome.