Hovering

Marmalade Hoverfly, Episyrphus balteatus, hovering in a woodland glade.
Hayes Common, 6 August 2011.

I have tried a few times to capture hoverflies in action. When not actually feeding, some species will stay in one spot, a true hover. But they have a habit of darting off to another spot if you get too near. This time I captured one fairly close up with my EOS 60D and 100mm macro lens. It looks good – but this is a crop from a much larger frame.  I had to focus by hand; the autofocus won't find such a small target in a dark wood.

This was taken at 1/400 of a second, but even so, the wings are going too fast to appear as more than a very slight blur. You can see how flat the underside of its body is. This is true of a lot of hoverflies.  They look much more substantial from above, when you get the illusion that they are more or less cylindrical.