flying with the mp-e

Finally managed to get some shots of a hover in flight with the mp-e today. I've been trying for a while now but with such a lack of hovers to practice on it's taken a while , anyway there were about two hovers in the garden today and I was running round like madman trying to catch one and finally my efforts payed off. However I did get stung many times (on nettles as opposed to bees ) not watching where I was kneeling, and i seem to have a thorn caught in my left middle finger and it's not comin' out. I'll stop rambling on - heres the pictures. What do you think? any advice on getting hovers in flight (without buying new lenses )?

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Andrew - they are impressive images, especially #2 - I really don't think you need any tips if you're capable of such good shots like this!!! Give yourself a good pat on the back, you've done a most excellent job on something that is very difficult (and I'm talking from first hand experience here lol). My only criticism is that the flash was a bit too strong, you can see it's burnt out on the hoverflies face.

Dave

Quite impressive for inflight shots with the mp-e!

great captures...

Wonderful shots esp #2 - well done
Brian V.

Great captures! We all know it's not easy Well done! Your next task is to get an inflight shot at 5x Just kidding!

Hehe, thanks everyone, I'll give myself a pat on the back but I'm not sure about the whole 5x in flight thing

Absolutely amazing. What Shutter Speed/Aperature/ISO are these at?

What's impressive is that you were able to capture this while it's in flight and kept the focus on its head. Were these handheld?

Super shots, the MP-E is not the lens I would use for mobile subjects like hovers - too hard.

Thanks again everone, Both shots were handheld at f/9 at 1/125 sec at ISO 400 with the mr-14ex as well.

Huh, I would have thought 1/125 would not be enough to stop the wings the way you did. Impressive.

It's the flash stopping the wings.

Can you elaborate?

The flash only lights up for a tiny amount of time approx 1/250 sec, so most of the light in the frame(although shot at 1/125 sec) will be from that 1/250 sec. Only a small amount of light will be natural light, and the natural light was not strong enough to highlight the wings whilst they were moving at such a high speed, this is why the wings appear to be frozen.
I think this is what you meant Kraig isn't it?