Your best flying insect photos

Here is mine:

(Does not have to be flying, just insects that can fly)

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/288848226 Damselfly snatched a mosquito from right near my head then perched to eat it

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/259627130 Paper wasp busting into fall webworm moth silk to eat

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/384704405 Maybe not the best photos ever but I was excited to get this one recently of a clearwing moth (I’d never seen it before!)

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/374424927 whitetail laying eggs

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/365777548 The most ferocious predator in North America

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/365777476 Golden-backed Snipe fly

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/383378177 Megachile bee

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/180663104 my snowberry clearwing (love these guys!)

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/179211841 and this rare little moth

I have more… many more… to many to keep track of.

Those insects aren’t flying.

I figure from the examples in the first post it’s “insects with wings” not “insects in flight”

Oh! This one is actually flying! The photo is…not a good photo.

But, I spent like an hour chasing these little tiny yellow butterflies around a huge field, and not once did even one of them stop flying around. My camera is not fast enough for insects in flight, so I just have to luck out. It took a lot of seriously atrocious photos before I could this one, which is merely very bad. It’s enough to make the ID, which is good enough for me.

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/385067380

Uh… I think you meant to say “your best photos of insects that can fly”. You implied “flight shots”.

I’ll share my flight shots! :slightly_smiling_face:

I have been working on being patient with flying dragonflies. I watch their patrol patterns. I get frustrated when they have to chase an intruder. I take a lot of photos. I have to be patient and persistent with my point and shoot camera. It can’t take a lot of photos at once. But, that makes me work harder. The Cyrano Darner was a new species for me. I was so happy just to find it and see it. Getting decent shots was a big bonus. The Prince Baskettail photos are the best ones I have ever gotten for this species. My camera does have lock-focus. But, that doesn’t mean it is easy to get locked on a moving subject!

Bees: I take a lot of photos of bees because I want different angles for identification purposes. I really like watching them through the camera screen as they work through flowers. Any flight photos I get of them are just lucky clicks. But, I’ll take that!

Dragonflies:

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/372629853

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/374066963

Bees:

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/375246705

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/375595560

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/375595557

I chose to understand the question as “insects in flight” as well.. :wink:

I used to try very hard to get in-flight photos. It is often a matter of knowing your subject.. a lot of insects show predictable behaviour, once you get to know them a little

My personal favourites are

honey bee (might be a boring photo subject for some, but I really like how that photo turned out)

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/37753697

Hoverfly

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/38344348

beewolf

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/38401405

silverspot butterfly

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/37846848

and this one is not my best in technical aspects, but I love that I managed to get a shot of this wild chase along a forest path and got all 4 butterflies in one shot

common brimstone

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/38571022

Cool photo!

Don’t have the observations handy, but here’s my favorite flying insect photos:

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/383135012 I was able to get really close.

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/382428629 Was also able to get really close.

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/386116994 the only reason I got so close was because I thought it was dead. It wasn’t. It left me alone, though.

This one was circling the area where I stood. It took me many shots and even this one is a about 1/9th of the actual photo.
https://www.inaturalist.org/photos/515431434


A bumblebee sticking out its “tongue” (proboscis).
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/305377037


This one makes me laugh because the wasp looked desperate and it was doing all sort of poses to position itself on top of the smaller flowers.

Sphex ichneumoneus (Great Golden Digger Wasp) doing the splits and also drinking nectar.


https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/305381092

Peek-a-boo!
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/305377034

Holding on to dear life. The background gives the illusion of movement.

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/312298387

I really like the wide angle framing like your beewolf one. Specially when there’s no discernible background.

Off topic, but check this out: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/319231693

There ought to be a project for observations with this type of shots.

I had no idea that a type of wasp (???) could be so cute. Look at it, bouncing across the terrain (I know it’s not really bouncing)!

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/386282475


Close-up of perplexing bumblebee

Not proud of this one since it’s a photo bomber that I just discovered 2 weeks ago! (The original pic was taken on April 12th of this year!!)

My first photo of an insect flying!


Zooming out is something else…

Obs. 299346142:

I stitched together some multiple shots for these ones



https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/observations/40228191
https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/observations/81160788

Bees!


https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/observations/26033545


https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/observations/68204453


https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/observations/26033339