Hummingbird Clear-Wing Moth, A Sharper View

Earlier I posted a shot of the Hummingbird Moth showing its long proboscis curled up in the flight position. I chose that shot to show the proboscis even though the shot lacked the crisp sharpness that I would have preferred.

Today I share with you the very best shot I obtained in this session. I am particularly fond of this shot because of both excellent subject sharpness & detail along with the beautiful background provided by the lilac bush.

Hummingbird Moth

A close-up of a Hummingbird Clearwing Moth reveals the long proboscis curled up into a convenient travel position.

Today as I followed some yellow and black swallowtail butterflies around our lilac bush I encountered this interesting little moth. It showed a clear preference for the shaded areas which made it difficult to obtain correct exposure while using a shutter speed fast enough to capture the image. Finally I settled on ISO 800 and captured this image at 1/640th of a second with an aperture of F5.6 and a 400mm focal length.