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Echinacea & the fly
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Echinacea & the fly

by Luke Ormand

Gallery: Macro & Close-upPosted July 13, 201095 views5 comments
This photo came out better than I had envisioned it. Over the weekend I went to a 10 acre wildflower meadow which has been planted as part of a new subdivision. Most developers would simply put down some seed mix and call it a day - but this builder has no shortage of money. He has spent $7.5 million alone on 440 full size trees brought up from New Jersey (the site was a former farm field and therefore vacant of any native vegetation). So when it came to the meadow, they have installed thousands of gallon sized full grown plants which have instantly attracted bugs and the like. I'm hoping next year the birds will start to visit.

Nikon d300s 105mm f/2.8 VR + 1.7X TC HH
f/16
1/200s
ISO 400
-.33 EC

If anyone can tell me the fly (I'm assuming) species, it would be appreciated.

Full Frame, no sharpening or any other adjustments.

Comments

5 comments
Comment posted by Gary Yeoh on July 14, 2010 at 12:30 AM
Luke:
I kind of enjoy looking at the flower by itself more than with the party crasher. The BG is really good as well. Beautiful flora shot.
Registered on September 1, 2009, 588 Posts, 8184 Comments
Comment posted by Genny K. on July 14, 2010 at 3:21 AM
Neat. I like the sharp points, they really catch my eye, and the colors are super. Also, the BG is lovely; the flower's colors show up there, and it really adds to the impact of this image. As was noted, this would be beautiful even without the fly.
Registered on June 5, 2006, 132 Posts, 2001 Comments
Comment posted by Peter May on July 14, 2010 at 9:20 AM
Nice shot, Luke. It's hard to go wrong with bugs on Echinacea - the disc flowers alone are visually stunning. The fly is a a halictid bee ("sweat bee"), probably in the genus Agapostemon.
Registered on November 1, 2003, 7 Posts, 239 Comments
Comment posted by Balakumar Kaushik on July 14, 2010 at 2:36 PM
Very colourful image. The larger version looks even better.

Registered on January 4, 2008, 98 Posts, 1403 Comments
Comment posted by John Kerr on July 15, 2010 at 2:11 PM
Nice composition Luke. I like the position of the flower in the image and great detail especially with no additional sharpening. I cant help with the ID on the insect but he sure is loaded down with pollen. Nice BG as well.
Registered on October 28, 2009, 111 Posts, 1070 Comments