Wasp

[LIVE4EVA]

Hey guys, just going through my recent pics and found this one.
Its not the best shot but i havent seen much like it

Thanks
LIVE4EVA
C&C Welcome

[gunn parker]

Unbelievable, I have tried for a shot like this, how did you set it up?
Andrew

[LIVE4EVA]

umm yeah set it up... thats what i did.
lol
well thing is it was flying around nice and crazy like... and i got out my camera and with manual focus just tried a few times to get to the right distance and shot.
i got one other also but this one is slightly better.

[SteveGriffin]

Nice work. When you try and capture bugs in flight it really maks you appreciate some of the published shots.

[christiand]

Hi all,

what kind of wasp is this thing
I've seen it a few times around our place and I don't like it to get close to me.
Can it do harm like attack and sting ???

Cheers,
CD

[avkomp]

looks like the ones I have seen climbing out of burrows in the ground.

not sure what sort, but I think it is the one that captures a caterpillar or big,
drags it into the burrow and lays an egg on it.

Steve

[LIVE4EVA]

Yeah not sure of the sort but i know that these ones really hurt if you annoy them enough to sting you.

[Gordon]

Hi all,

what kind of wasp is this thing
I've seen it a few times around our place and I don't like it to get close to me.
Can it do harm like attack and sting ???

Cheers,
CD

Its a mud dauber, they do not sting in my experience, and they are very common around here - I can think of 2 nests in the shed, but will buzz all around your face to make you back off. I've taken plenty of pics of them over the years and despite all the buzzing around my face they have never tried to sting.
They make nests of mud - as tubes packed together, and put paralysed spiders in each tube with their egg and it grows as it eats the spiders, and then breaks out of its mud chamber. One thing I discovered is that the young take off immediately they are out of the mud- no time to get a pic. I have tried several times to get the young wasp emerging, but failed every time so far (with the FE2). Maybe I'll try using continuous with the D70 and have more luck.

Gordon

[mudder]

I wouldn't want that critture buzzing around my face, strewth... Good work to catch it in flight like that.

[Steffen]

I'm being brutally honest now, I think the insect could use a bit more sharpness. I'm not saying you should have done better, I know what kind of challenge shooting little critters at short range is.

Then there's those bad-bokeh highlights. They're so bad that they actually work well, and become a feature of the shot. I especially like their colouration. The insect could be as harmless as it wants, those greenish/turquoise highlights make it look extremely nasty.

Cheers
Steffen PS I thought the lack of sharpness might be the result of down-sizing, but trying to look at the bigger picture I only get a site daring me to win a BMW...

[LIVE4EVA]

Thanks for those comments Steffen.
I will probably try with this guy again in the future and maybe get some better lighting(had the shutter a bit slower then i wanted).
Thinking about it i cant work out what made those colours behind as it was just a plain shirt on the end of the bed.
Anyway Cheers guys and hopefully i will have some better ones soon.
LIVE4EVA