Picture of the week

Sleeping drone fly

A drone fly in a dormant state on top of a wildflower of the fringe pod. Insects like this can sometimes be found in the early morning after roosting on a flower overnight. Until the temperatures warm up and the morning dew that has accumulated on it dissipates, such cold-blooded insects will stay powered down. They can be a good opportunity for macro-photography, as they aren't going anywhere, allowing time for more careful compositions even if you bump the plant slightly. In this case, it allowed me the luxury to set up a tripod and increase the depth of field by tightening the aperture without worry of too slow of a shutter speed. For this particular image, I captured this using a Canon 5D mark III with the Canon 100mm L-series f/2.8 IS macro lens at f/13, 1/20th of second, and ISO 1600. I used a cable release with the camera in mirror lock-up mode in order to further reduce vibration during the shutter release.

I discovered this particular fly while photographing wildflowers early in the morning on the American River parkway, one of my favorite nearby locations that is just a mile walk from my house.  Although the spring got off to a slow start, with the more recent rains, we have seen a late but signficant bloom of the wildflowers. One theory is that plants can sense if conditions are such that growing conditions are distressed, and can pull the equivalent of a "swan song", maximizing their bloom and seed output in order to increase the odds of surviveable for their offspring going into the next season.

All content and images are property of Stephen Fischer Photography, copyright 2014.  Last updated: 4/8/2014   ()