Wednesday 14 January 2009

Dinner's ready

On a field nats' excursion this morning someone pointed out a broken bird egg on the asphalt and I noticed several types of flies taking advantage of the food source.

Flies seem to be of interest to a few bloggers lately. Snail wrote a very interesting blog about blowflies, and Duncan posted photos the other day. I think what I have are some Flesh-flies (of the Sarcophagidae Family) and a blowfly, possibly Lesser Brown Blowfly Calliphora auger of the Calliphordae Family and another blurred stripey one in the background of the first photo. I'm happy to be informed.

7 comments:

Snail said...

I'm going with your IDs, Boobook. Opportunistic little things, flies are, but they clean up the mess.

Duncan said...

Lovely grub!

Denis Wilson said...

Hi Boobook
Stunning macro shots (as was your recent Bullant image).
May I inquire about the camera and lenses you use.
Cheers
Denis

Boobook said...

Thanks everyone.
Denis, re my camera.
It's really basic. Several years ago I bought a second-hand Nikon Coolpix 995,a point and shoot, the one with the swivel lens. It has very good manual settings and I rarely work in auto. And the swivel lens is very very useful for awkward angles. And, best of all, the macro on this camera is famously good. Last year I dropped it and had to make the decision on whether to get it repaired or not, and decided to pay $300+ and I'm not sorry I did.
While my camera was out of action (it happened just before we were going away for Christmas holidays of course) I bought myself a little fill-in point and shoot, a Sony Cybershot W55, and I'm very happy with the macro capabilities of it as well.
So, no fancy equipment or lenses. The only thing I'm missing is good landscape zoom capability so I'm thinking of getting an SLR before I go overseas later this year.

Gouldiae said...

G'day Boobook,
Nice shots, and all part of Mother Nature's plan.
Regards,
Gouldiae

Denis Wilson said...

Hi Boobook
Many thanks for the info.
I have seen a Sony Cybershot in action and it was very good. They have Carl Zeiss optics.
The Nikon Coolpix sounds very good too.
The compact digitals are very good these days, and, as you have discovered, many can take better Macro shots than the DSLRs - which is very annoying to those of us who have invested lots of money in the larger format cameras. Plus, changing lenses in the field is a great source of annoyance (and dust entry).
Seeing as you are considering a purchase, I will mention that, in my opinion, there seems to be no such thing as as the perfect all round camera.
Some of my fellow Orchid enthusiasts report very favourably on Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX28, which has a conventional (excellent quality) Leica lens with 18 x optical zoom, which is pretty amazing. Its pretty much the top end of their range, but, with the variability, you don't have my problem of carrying 3 different lenses and having to change them out in the bush. I mentioned it was a "conventional" lens. What I mean is, apparently, other lenses and filters can be used, to screw onto the front, unlike most "compact digitals".
Something to think about, anyway.
Cheers
Denis

Boobook said...

Thanks Denis. A friend of mine has just bought the Lumix and I must say I've been amazed at its capabilities.Maybe that's the way to go.