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Insects with OM-D-EM-1 & Zuiko 50-200& EC14

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Brad Ross

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taken this morning with tripod with natural light



Gorgone Checkerspot
Gorgone Checkerspot



Blue Dasher - male
Blue Dasher - male



Blue Dasher - male
Blue Dasher - male



Amberwing
Amberwing



Amberwing
Amberwing



bee of some sort on coneflower
bee of some sort on coneflower





--
Brad Ross
 
nice examples of what can be achieved with this combo

I use mine, without the EC-14 to shoot bees in flight and find it easier to do than using the 60mm macro (mainly because with the bee smaller in the frame its easier to track and focus on the bee in the fractions of a second longer available to do it)

The more I use this lens on the EM-1 the more I like it (mine's the mk1 non swd version)
 
All very nice. I particularly like the colors in the last (bee with coneflower)!

Phil
 
thanks for looking, my 50-200m is the SWD, with that enormous lens hood. I do not have the m60mm, I do have the zuiko 50mm macro & Sigma 150mm macro, both of which I have not tried in this camera yet, all these lens were purchased for my other 4/3s, I need to do some close ups with the m75mm & m12-40, the latter lens, I really love as my main lens for the E-M1

for your bees in flight, are you using single point with the middle rectangle ?
 
Nice dragon shots. You did well with low shutter speed with this combo. I could barely get anything sharp at below 1/500s with this combo.
 
Brad Ross said:
thanks for looking, my 50-200m is the SWD, with that enormous lens hood. I do not have the m60mm, I do have the zuiko 50mm macro & Sigma 150mm macro, both of which I have not tried in this camera yet, all these lens were purchased for my other 4/3s, I need to do some close ups with the m75mm & m12-40, the latter lens, I really love as my main lens for the E-M1

for your bees in flight, are you using single point with the middle rectangle ?
Click to expand...
 
That is beautiful work! Lots for me to learn from! :-D

Why do you shoot off of a tripod at those shutter intervals?

Can you share a link or two where you are learning the IDs of insects? I am quite new to this game and have been googling images but I'm sure that there must be some sites that have good keys.

Can you share any secrets about favorite sources of nectar for bees, butterflies, moths etc? I, again, today spent a very enjoyable hour at a (backwoods) roadside milkweed patch that was very very active. My first experience there, 2 days ago, is shown here: http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/53966169

Today there were several of these:

these were competing with several kinds of bees, monarchs, viceroys, clearwings, admirals for milkweed nectar
these were competing with several kinds of bees, monarchs, viceroys, clearwings, admirals for milkweed nectar

Would you ID it please? Many thanks.

Tom
 
thanks for the comments. Your butterfly is a Skipper, I think the variety Sachem. I use "The field Guide to Insects and Spiders of North America published by the National Wildlife Federation.

I use the tripod because I manually focus in most cases on the eyes, much easier. If handheld, you have to rock back and forth until the eyes come into focus. To get the entire body in focus is difficult unless you have a side view. If you approach a long insect such as a dragonfly head on, it is very difficult even at small apertures, but as long as you have the eyes in focus, the shot can look good.

The 50-200mm with the EC14 is rather heavy (3 lbs, 6 3/8oz or 1.54 kg), with the tripod collar on. On a small camera such as the OM-D, for me the tripod work. Of course birds in flight demand handheld.
 
Brad Ross said:
thanks for the comments. Your butterfly is a Skipper, I think the variety Sachem. I use "The field Guide to Insects and Spiders of North America published by the National Wildlife Federation.

I use the tripod because I manually focus in most cases on the eyes, much easier. If handheld, you have to rock back and forth until the eyes come into focus. To get the entire body in focus is difficult unless you have a side view. If you approach a long insect such as a dragonfly head on, it is very difficult even at small apertures, but as long as you have the eyes in focus, the shot can look good.

The 50-200mm with the EC14 is rather heavy (3 lbs, 6 3/8oz or 1.54 kg), with the tripod collar on. On a small camera such as the OM-D, for me the tripod work. Of course birds in flight demand handheld.

--
Brad Ross
Click to expand...
Thanks for the ID. "Ontario sachem" led me to find this site: http://www.ontariobutterflies.ca/families/skippers/sachem which seems pretty good.

Thanks for http://www.amazon.ca/National-Wildlife-Federation-Insects-Spiders/dp/1402741537 ----- another book for my bulging library!!

Yesterday, I photo'd this butterfly at the same spot as the others.

I believe it to be an Eastern Comma http://www.ontariobutterflies.ca/families/nymphalidae/eastern-comma

Appears to be an EASTERN COMMA
Appears to be an EASTERN COMMA

And thank you for the MF hint. I have rarely shot insects in MF. I'm not quick enough. The bug usually departs just as I am getting close! I guess that I need practice with that left hand! Thanks for putting me on to that!

I'm going to try MF with these guys as I'm finding pretty good success with getting a spot on the flower in the plane of the the area of interest and prefocusing there. I cannot get a good focus on the moving hummingbird moths. I don't know if it is the camera or me.



[ATTACH alt="prefocused on the upper flowerlet using AF-S then releasing as soon as insect approaches. I think that those are pollen "booties" --- on those 4 legs."]692417[/ATTACH]
prefocused on the upper flowerlet using AF-S then releasing as soon as insect approaches. I think that those are pollen "booties" --- on those 4 legs.

Thanks a lot for your help. Maybe by the end of the summer I'll know a bit more about these parts of my natural environment and how to photograph them!!!

Tom
 

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your butterfly ID looks accurate, hummingbird moth is a great capture. I tend to use MF mainly for stationary objects, or 2D, not so but for something moving in 3 directions. Have a great summer tracking them down and come over to Olympus SLR forum and re-post, it is where I host the Weekly Close Up forum, all camera are welcome!
 
Brad Ross said:
your butterfly ID looks accurate, hummingbird moth is a great capture. I tend to use MF mainly for stationary objects, or 2D, not so but for something moving in 3 directions. Have a great summer tracking them down and come over to Olympus SLR forum and re-post, it is where I host the Weekly Close Up forum, all camera are welcome!
Click to expand...
 
I love the last 3 dragonfly shots. What's the minimum focusing distance with that setup? It looks like you got closer than 5 feet.

Regards

Michael
 
Brian Wadie said:
Yes Brad, I use the smallest single centre point for focus in AF-S mode, with 10fps set (but with the 50-200 that works out nearer 5fps I would estimate) Once I have got first AF lock I then rock the camera to get spot on focus. Typically I fire short burst of 2 or 3 shots to capture the moment I want. Usually need to crop down to around 1000 - 500 pixels on the longest side for the final image but there is more than enough information captured to make this worthwhile

(some examples here http://www.imagesfromnature.co.uk/gallery/bees-in-flight-21763 )
Click to expand...
 
thanks for the info Ivan, is that the SWD you have? (I think that my mk1 is using the "Latest" firmware - I'll check)

As it is, I get what sounds like 10fps wide open but the moment I stop it down the rate drops significantly

edit - just checked, only the SWD version has an update (2010) the last mk1 firmware showing is 2004!

Oh well, apart from the "slowdown" I'm delighted with the way its working on the EM-1 and for £270 I can't complain (it came with a 12 month warranty as well! :) )

--
So much to learn, so little time left to do it! :D
 
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