Dung Fly Bubble blowing

[LordV]

This guy (or Gal) seems to be getting a regular visitor- same bush on 4 consecutive days now. Was nice enough to blow a bubble for me. Normal pic and a cross-eye 3D pair
Brian V.

http://lordv.smugmug.com/photos/45219153-L.jpg


http://lordv.smugmug.com/photos/45219156-L.jpg

[Moikle]

Do you use a tripod or the rocking backwards and forwards method?

[nitsch]

Great shots of the bubble blower Brian. :D

Bit off topic, but in the past you posted a thread with a picture of your macro lighting setup, I wanted to have another look but can't find it, you couldn't post a link could you? Thanks, Nick.

[LordV]

Do you use a tripod or the rocking backwards and forwards method?
Hi Moikle,
I Use a modified rocking method. Since I started recently shooting above 1:1 handheld, I've been using a high tech 7foot metal bean pole. I grip the pole with my left hand whilst also gripping the Flash bracket handle- helps stabilise the camera. So the camera is in manual fixed focus and as you suggest I focus and shoot whilst gently moving back and forth.
Brian V.

[LordV]

Great shots of the bubble blower Brian. :D

Bit off topic, but in the past you posted a thread with a picture of your macro lighting setup, I wanted to have another look but can't find it, you couldn't post a link could you? Thanks, Nick.
Thanks nitsch,
You can see a pic of my rig here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lordv/29274672/
Interestingly it's the second most viewed pic in my macro collection.
PS the white thing is my home-made remote trigger- I tend to use this rather than the camera shutter button to prevent camera rotation.

[nitsch]

Thanks nitsch,
You can see a pic of my rig here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lordv/29274672/
Interestingly it's the second most viewed pic in my macro collection.
PS the white thing is my home-made remote trigger- I tend to use this rather than the camera shutter button to prevent camera rotation.

Thank you very much Brian. Looks like a great setup. What make of flash bracket is this? I assume that the bracket and ball joint allow the flash to be repositioned to acommodate the extra length of the lens when you add on the extension tubes? Sorry for the questions! I am struggling a bit with lighting once I venture over 1:1 magnification.

[JohnnyG]

Nice shots of the bubble blower!!!

[LordV]

Thank you very much Brian. Looks like a great setup. What make of flash bracket is this? I assume that the bracket and ball joint allow the flash to be repositioned to acommodate the extra length of the lens when you add on the extension tubes? Sorry for the questions! I am struggling a bit with lighting once I venture over 1:1 magnification.
That's ok.
Fraid the flash bracket is just a generic vidcam light holder I had for my video8 . I drilled a hole through the top fitting to put the miniature ball head on it. Yes with it fitted like this I can still get the flash to the end of the lens with 65mm of tubes, a 1.4 extender and a reversed 50mm lens on the macro lens. As I go from 1:1 to 2:1 I do have to put upto +1FEC on the flash sometimes.
Brian V.

[LordV]

Great shot (more eye strain on the last two)
Thanks soupdragon- aren't you getting used to the 3-D shots yet?
Brian V.

[LordV]

Nice shots of the bubble blower!!!
Thanks JohnnyG for looking and commenting. much appreciated.
brian V.

[nitsch]

That's ok.
Fraid the flash bracket is just a generic vidcam light holder I had for my video8 . I drilled a hole through the top fitting to put the miniature ball head on it. Yes with it fitted like this I can still get the flash to the end of the lens with 65mm of tubes, a 1.4 extender and a reversed 50mm lens on the macro lens. As I go from 1:1 to 2:1 I do have to put upto +1FEC on the flash sometimes.
Brian V.

Great stuff, I'm finding that some of the best solutions are often home made or at least home-modified! I might have a go at fabricating something myself and seeing what I can come up with. Thanks for the info Brian and sorry for hijacking your thread to solve my own lighting issues!! :D

[LordV]

Great stuff, I'm finding that some of the best solutions are often home made or at least home-modified! I might have a go at fabricating something myself and seeing what I can come up with. Thanks for the info Brian and sorry for hijacking your thread to solve my own lighting issues!! :D
No probs- glad to be of help.
The ball head is from Jessops (£7) and they also do a generic vid cam bracket for about £15. Hardest bit was actually tracking down some 1/4" bolts as most of these are metric now. Think I eventually found some in Wilkinsons that I had to shorten considerably.
Brian V.

[racketman]

You seem to have a lot of luck with bubble blowers - i've only seen this once and didnt have the right gear to capture. Are we clear what it means; Googling has come up with zilch so far.
Might make a suitable signature for your posts - go to User CP and upload an image?

[LordV]

You seem to have a lot of luck with bubble blowers - i've only seen this once and didnt have the right gear to capture. Are we clear what it means; Googling has come up with zilch so far.
Might make a suitable signature for your posts - go to User CP and upload an image?

I think it is quite common if you take a lot of fly pics:D . Obviously they are not bubbles but liquid drops and the flies seem to do this several times - ie regurgitate, suck it back in and repeat the process(Record that I've observed was 11 consecutive drops). Drops vary from colourless to deep coffee coloured (not from the same fly at the same time). Only explanation I've heard came from NZMacro (on Dgrin and DpReview) who had heard the suggestion it was something to do with an aid to digestion. He had a pic of a Katykid doing it so it's not limited to flies.You can often tell when flies are doing it (even if you can't see the drop) because they tend to go very still which is handy for photographing them.
Found some pics by nzmacro on another forum in this thread- http://forums.naturephotographers.net/groupee/forums/a/tpc/f/8556005841/m/3260048753
Good idea re the sig- will investigate.
Thanks
Brian V.

[Leorooster]

Very nice Brian. You're right that it's a frequent visitior.....I recall seeing this guy :)

[LordV]

Very nice Brian. You're right that it's a frequent visitior.....I recall seeing this guy :)

But he wasn't blowing a bubble last time!;)
Brian V.

[denis]

Excellent shots as always!

Couple of questions for you. I do a lot of moth photography but have only recently started trying to achieve what might be regarded as the next gear up in terms of quality. My biggest problem seems to be getting the little b*ggers to keep still. How do you do it with insects? I'm not keen on the "fridge cosh" method although I will admite to having used in in the past.

Second question is on your home made remote release. Where did you manage to obtain the connector that goes into the camera?

Best Wishes

Denis

[LordV]

Excellent shots as always!

Couple of questions for you. I do a lot of moth photography but have only recently started trying to achieve what might be regarded as the next gear up in terms of quality. My biggest problem seems to be getting the little b*ggers to keep still. How do you do it with insects? I'm not keen on the "fridge cosh" method although I will admite to having used in in the past.

Second question is on your home made remote release. Where did you manage to obtain the connector that goes into the camera?

Best Wishes

Denis

Thanks Dennis,
Bugs not keeping still is just part of the fun. As I shoot manual focus or more correctly fixed focus and hand held, I move the camera to take the shot and literally take the shot whilst the camera is slowly moving. So the bug moving to makes it slightly more difficult but not impossible. Also does help if you shoot early morning before the bugs have a chance to warm up properly.

The connector is from a cell phone earpiece I think for a Motorola phone- it's a 2.5mm jack with three connections including ground (ie like the 3.5mm stereo jacks) on the stem-beware some have 4 connections and will not work. You may be able to pick one up cheap in a £ or $ store- I found mine in a phone shop sale for about £3. If you connect the ground as a common to two switches and the other 2 lines to each switch (one each) you end up with both focus and trigger. I used a couple of microswitches out of an old PC joystick and mounted them in a Boots earplug container, using the earplugs to keep the switches in place.
Brian V.

[denis]

Thanks Brian - v. useful!

[kallousa]

That's excellent Brian, As usual

Do you know what makes an insect come to the same spot consicutively? I had a strange fly coming to my window for some days.

Thanx for sharing
regards

[LordV]

That's excellent Brian, As usual

Do you know what makes an insect come to the same spot consicutively? I had a strange fly coming to my window for some days.

Thanx for sharing
regards
Thanks Ahmad,
In this case I think it's mainly because it's the warmest spot in the garden, but I did notice the bugs did seem to be feeding on the leaf surface but I couldn't see anything there. The main bush they seem to like is a camelia which is a bit of a pain because it has highly reflective leaves.
Yesterday there were 3 hoverflies, 3 dungflies and about 4 bluebottles on there.
Brian V.

[kallousa]

Thanks Ahmad,
Yesterday there were 3 hoverflies, 3 dungflies and about 4 bluebottles on there.

you are very lucky ... :D

[BigAl-SA]

Nice shot Brian. He even seems to be twisting his head for you to see the bubble!

[LordV]

Thanks Al,
Next day when I went to the same bush there were three of these flies and they were all blowing bubbles- I've come to the inevitable conclusion that they were blowing raspberries at me but have not quite mastered the technique. :) :)
I managed to do a little animation of one of them.
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=115075
Brian V.