The perils of macro photography are probably few, but I personally suffer at times from a lack of perspective. The goal is to get close…and closer…and closer…and…eventually I am frustrated by the inability of my camera and lens to capture the detail or magnify the subject enough. There is no frame, but instead, a vortex of the picture’s window, and I am drawn in and away behind the image, behind the focus and finally behind good sense. If it were just a matter of getting better equipment, I could simply cry poor, but it would still be more of the same: first there were galaxies farther out in the universe, now there are universes farther out in whatever a collection of universes is called. It is at this point I have to get up from my crouch and take a breath, hopefully not too dizzy from not breathing (I have to keep my hands steady somehow), because who wants to slip into the madness of the never-ending search for the fountain of youth or the recurrent despair of chasing ghosts resting sublimely in peace? Who wants to take photographs of butterflies and not see the actual fluttering? It takes a little perspective, and the bugs come back: tiny, curious, incomprehensible and disappearing into the wide open world in a blink of the eye.

And so, to back up a little, I give you this closer to life-size Syrphid fly, known commonly as hover or flower flies. This is Bug Photo’s first repeat subject, and there will be more Syrphids; I can guarantee that! This one was perched on some goldenrod. To get a closer look, check out my first hover fly post.