Hummingbird Moth

I was out with my EOS 7D and 70-200 f/2.8L IS II lens with the 2X extender attached looking for a particular butterfly I had seen when I spied one of my favorite insects feeding on some bee balm. The Hummingbird Moth, or Common Clearwing (Hemaris thysbe), is a member of the sphinx moth family and I was lucky enough to have a pair of them flitting around for quite a while.

As the photos show, the reason for both of its names are obvious. You can learn more about this interesting insect from Massachusetts Audubon here.

These images are not cropped at all and, in fact, the only post processing I did was adjust the white balance a little and add a small amount of sharpening as is usually a good idea with EOS 7D files. All three were made with the EOS 7D and the EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II lens with Canon Extender EF 2x II, hand held using spot metering and AI Servo Auto Focusing.

f/5.6, 1/1500 sec., ISO 400

f/5.6, 1/1500 sec., ISO 400

f/5.6, 1/750 sec., ISO 400