Smithsonian magazine's 22nd Annual Photo Contest | Made possible through the support of MPB.com

18th Annual Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest Natural World
Macro Lovers

Macro love Macro photography offers me an opportunity to show case unseen beauty of small world. One day I captured mating of petite and colorful couple of Banana Stalk Flies, when I was searching for their behavior near the area of Kahathuduwa, Sri lanka. After I found this incident, I waited considerable amount of time until they position to exact place so I could capture them in parallel to my frame for maintaining all body details and the focusing intact. They were very active. Therefore, it was very difficult. My effort and patience rewarded with concluding of capturing extraordinary mating behavior of this miniature Banana Stalk Flies. They can be found in damp or rotting vegetation. They are members of Neriidae family, relatively small type of true flies with long, stilt-like legs. Our actions will have direct impact on their survival. Therefore, these days it is very difficult to find their actions. My attempt as a macro photographer is to project macro behavior in to large displays in order to change people’s feelings about them. Thus, I spend lot of hard days inside forests to capture insects, bugs and other small types. Technical specification: Sony A6500 + 90mm f2.8 G 1/200sec, F8, ISO-200, Hand-held

Photo Detail
Date Taken: 07.2018
Date Uploaded: 11.2020
Photo Location: Kahathuduwa, Sri Lanka
Camera: ILCE-6500
Copyright: © Damith Osuranga Danthanarayana