Tuesday, August 5, 2014

What’s nearly as bad as a humming bird?


Of course by this I mean from a “let’s get a reasonably good image”. At the moment my vote goes to the aptly named Hummingbird Moth; which, unlike most moths, is seen on clear, sunny days.
 
The hummingbird moth belongs to the family of moths technically call the Sphingidae family or Sphinx family of moths. They tend to fly strong and fast like a hummingbird with a rapid wing beats. The hummingbird moth will feed on a flower much like a hummingbird. But instead of a beak and tongue to lap the nectar, they have a proboscis to sip the nectar from a flower.

The New Mexico Hummingbird Moths grow up to two inches long. They have an olive-green body with red bands across their abdomen. Tufts of hairs from the end of the abdomen look a lot like feathers. The wings of this moth are mostly clear, sometimes with some red near the body. 

I decided on my macro 100mm F2.8L, as I knew I could get close and that capturing detail was going to be important. But I also knew I would need a little help in the exposure area, because I would be using the lens at F/8 to F/16, to increase the depth of field on the moth

I used my EX 580 EX II flash mounted on the camera and attached my Ray-Flash adapter.



With the technology in place it was a ‘simple’ matter of patiently waiting for a moth to ‘come along’.

Bottom line: although it’s great to get out; it’s also nice sometimes to explore your own backyard…you never know what you will find.





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