Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 cropped — ¹/400 sec, f/5.6, ISO 2500 — map & image data — nearby photos
Little Fly
on a big flower

I visited the gardens of the Heian Shrine (平安神宮) the other day with Aeron. The shrine's garden is best known for its cherry blossoms, and it looks pretty nice when it snows (which is rarely), but it's quite pleasant any time of year for those who take the time to enjoy it.

On our visit, we weren't the only ones enjoying the many colors of hydrangea. This little hoverfly seemed to be enjoying his all-you-can-eat pollen buffet.

full frame of the image above

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Hovering

I didn't expect to get much of a shot of the little guy... he was far enough away from the path that I really had to lean over just to try to get close, so I was unstable to begin with, and this is all hand-held in the shade. On top of all that, with the close-up macro of the Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5, the depth of field was razor thin.

But I took a lot of shots and hoped to get lucky, and did to some extent.

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 cropped — ¹/640 sec, f/2.5, ISO 800 — map & image data — nearby photos
^♪_♫ ♪ Lolly-pop, Lolly-pop... ♪ ^♪ ♫

full frame of the image above

The colors were exquisite, but they get washed out when adjusting for the hoverfly. Here's the same flower from further back, sans bugs:

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/640 sec, f/2.5, ISO 1400 — map & image data — nearby photos

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 4500 — map & image data — nearby photos
Bee
out of focus, but still somehow interesting

I also came across a less-obliging insect, a bee, who fritted here and there more quickly.

In the shot above, even though the bee's choppers are in focus, the focus feels wrong because the eyes (or what seem to be eyes to the non-entomologist) are out of focus, and it seems to be a pretty strong rule of composition that if eyes are in the frame and anywhere close to the focus, they should be in focus because as humans, that what we focus on first. I guess.

Still, I like the “small world made big” feel of the shot.

Continued here...