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Flower Flies

December 16, 2016

Flower Flies

- as seen by -

John Stahl John Stahl

Autumn means many things to many people.

Aside from searching out foliage, I always make it a point to visit the dahlia garden at Planting Fields Arboretum in Oyster Bay, New York in October. Along with a multitude of magnificent blooms, there’s almost a guarantee of seeing many wee beasties as well. The flowers are magnets for butterflies, bees, and flies. The bees range in size from small to large. Some of the more interesting flies of the world can also be found at the arboretum such as this syrphid fly (Toxomerus geminatus) seen here on an autumn-hued dahlia. These are also called flower flies, and many are bee mimics. They come in a variety of sizes. This particular beauty is from 3/8 inch to 1/2 inch in length. Getting clear, sharp images of them is a challenge, especially when fall winds are blowing.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This photo was chosen as one of our top submissions from our Wild View All Things Autumn Assignment.

Canon EOS 7D with 100mm f/2.8 Macro Lens


Oyster Bay, USA Map It

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3 comments

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Ken Conley
December 16, 2016 at 12:16 pm

Wow!
Almost all of the photos on this blog are amazing, but this one really bowled me over. The colors are perfect and I love the composition! Even at F/2.8 the DoF is more than sufficient – speaks to the size of your subject, I suppose.
Thanks, John, for sharing!!

    John stahl
    December 18, 2016 at 8:03 am

    Ken….glad you liked it. I spend a lot of time shooting the wee beasties…might be an obsession!

Mark A. Cook
December 16, 2016 at 7:21 pm

John has the most amazing photos of Flower Flies.