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This is a White-lined Sphinx Moth (Hyla lineata) commonly known as a Hummingbird Moth. My wife and I were at an art gallery near Sante Fe, New Mexico when she saw it and another smaller one flying around these flowers (which I believe to be a variety of Larkspur or Delphinium). The moth I photographed is about two inches long excluding its very long tongue that can be seen protruding into one of the flowers. Their motion is very similar to a real hummingbird including very fast wings that are virtually impossible to see due to their great speed.
This is a hand-held photograph, but I used an external flash in an attempt to freeze the motion for the photograph. Even with the flash, some ghost images are visible of the flapping wings. When the mouse cursor is placed over the image you will see a sample of this photograph at the image scale of the camera I used. This is a one-to-one mapping of camera pixels to computer monitor pixels.
Photographer: Rick Scott
Camera: Canon EOS 20D digital camera
Lens: Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM set to 200mm
Exposure: 1/250 of a second at f/4.5 with flash
Camera Mode: ISO 100 RAW
Software: Adobe Photoshop CS2 for RAW conversion and image processing
Updated: 3 September 2005