I seem to be taking a lot of pictures of flies. I have even more in the queue that haven't been posted yet. Mostly it's because flies seem to be everywhere these days. To be honest, I often view photographing flies as a form of "practice" for when a more interesting insect comes along. That's kind of an unfair way of thinking, though... flies are interesting creatures in their own right.

In this photo, it's not so much the fly that is interesting, but the fact that it's standing right on the edge of the serrated leaf.

I have officially moved to Ontario now. I'm posting from my own computer, in my own house, on my own internet connection which was just established yesterday. I suppose I could say a lot about the move and my first impressions of Ontario... but I really don't want to. Suffice it to say that I don't cope well with moving, and even the most seamless of moves would leave me a little bit stressed. This move, while it could have been worse, has given me a new-found appreciation of things I previously took for granted - like water, electricity, and a bed to sleep in at night. Now that I finally have those things, an internet connection and time for photography are really gravy.

Work and life are conspiring to do me in right now, but I do have a nice archive of photos from before I left Saskatoon, and some new ones I've taken here. I should be able to continue with the (sort-of) daily posting from now on. So, welcome back, blog readership of... probably zero. Here is the best macro shot I have taken of a fly.

When I got my new camera, one of the things I looked forward to most was taking macro photos of insects. I had to wait a while to try, since I bought the camera in the dead of winter. I got a few moth and spider shots in Costa Rica. I took more than 100 pictures of the same large beetle over the course of 2 days, and went out at night to photograph giant grasshoppers with long antennae. I also photographed a few different spiders. Unfortunately, I was disappointed when I reviewed the photos later. Some lacked critical sharpness -- including ALL of the beetle photos. The night grasshopper photos just looked bizarre thanks to harsh lighting from my head lamp. I might post some of these photos later when I am feeling less critical (or lacking blog material). In all cases, I didn't seem to be able to get as close to the tiny creatures as other macro photographers seem to get.

Now that I have my teleconverter, I should have no problem getting close! My problem has been, frankly, lack of bugs. It has been a cold, dreary spring, with temperatures more like March than May or June. Last summer, armed with only a little point-and-shoot, I seemed to be virtually tripping over ladybugs, spiders, bees and caterpillars. This year... nada. I took a few bee shots at the Mendel Conservatory, and the results were miserably blurry (there's no such thing as autofocus with the teleconverter).

Today, the sun came out for literally 15 minutes, and I got a chance to practice with this little fly in a now-open leopard's bane (view big for best effect). Hopefully this will be the first of many insect photos this summer!