More image stacking: portraits of flies

Portrait of a blue bottle fly (Calliphora vicina) compiled from a stack of 68 images

The photo above is a portrait of a blue bottle fly—a common type of blow fly that goes by the scientific name of Calliphora vicina. It is distinguished from the also common Calliphora vomitoria (I love that name) by its bright orange cheeks. These flies feed and lay their eggs on carrion, and as a result, this is an important species in forensic entomology for determining the time of death for a body (usually human). [Note: I originally misidentified this specimen as being C. vomitoria. Many thanks to Marcello for setting me straight with the following comment: “…the first image is Calliphora vicina and not Calliphora vomitoria, cheeks bicolor, orange/Yellow spiracle for the C. vicina. Cheeks black and orange beard for C. vomitoria”. I have edited the text accordingly.]

The picture below is a portrait of another blow fly, but unfortunately I don’t know what kind. It was about ½ the size of the blue bottle and didn’t have any identifying characteristics that I could recognize. I’m sure someone will see this post and recognize it…if so, please leave a comment!

Portrait of a blow fly (probably Eucalliphora latifrons) compiled from a stack of 48 images

I don’t have much to say about taking these pictures. I used the same equipment and techniques that I discussed in my previous threads about photo stacking (First attempt at image stacking: the face of a sow bug (Isopoda); Macro photograph of the face of a drumming katydid; Image stacking revisited: macro photograph a sow bug—take 2).

I haven’t posted any stacked photos for a while. For that matter, I haven’t played around with photo staking for a while—I took these two pictures over a month ago. With all the good weather we have been having I have concentrated the limited time I have on shooting in the field. I do have plans to do more stacking in the future. And when I get the chance I will be experimenting with adapting microscope lenses to my camera to achieve greater magnification.  I just need more time…If only each day had 36 hours!

Cheers
EC

The technical stuff:
Camera: Olympus E-620 digital SLR
Lens: Zuiko 50mm F1.8 reversed on an Olympus OM auto bellows
Settings: manual exposure (F5.6 @ 1/125 sec)
Lighting: Olympus RF-11 ring flash (manual; 1/8 power)