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I'm glad someone has started this discussion - some good tips there Black, although I bet there is a good deal of hopping about your kitchen!

Until recently, I was cooling flies in the fridge to slow them down. They need minimum half an hour, with carefully timed stints in the freezer of about 45 seconds at a time if still too active to be photographed. Use a digital kitchen timer and a bit of practice to ensure minimal 'mournful sights'. You can also sit the 'prepared' fly on a freezer block whilst photographing, so it stays cool (towel underneath is sensible, as the freezer block will make quite a wet patch on your work surface).

My usual method was to transfer the fly from its specimen tube into a lid from a sauce bottle (Chinese style sauces come in bottles with lids just the right size here in England - about 40-50mm diameter and 5-7mm deep). I lined bottom and sides of the lid with pale blue paper, also a good background colour for many species. To minimise having to hop around too much I then stretched plastic food wrap over the lid. If you have been dexterous, the plastic food wrap is almost invisible. You need to use a good quality one, which doesn't have too many permanent wrinkles that won't be stretched out. You need to use a piece that is not too big or you get an annoying lump underneath the lid which prevents it sitting flat and makes your photography harder. It can also attract a lot of fluff, so you need to be careful not to let it touch other surfaces.

If you have not been dexterous and your fly escapes, a battery powered pooter (suction device) is useful, especially when you have high ceilings. These are sold as implements for safely catching wasps and spiders in the house, and are not particularly expensive.

The less artificial light you can use the better, as the heat from the light will warm the fly up very quickly.

The disadvantage of this technique is that you are usually restricted to dorsal or ventral views. It can be quite tricky getting a lateral view without getting too much of the lid in the shot, or too much shadow - although it is sometimes possible.

I have used past tense to describe my use of this technique because lately I have been so busy that I am not photographing specimens the day they are collected. I am now having to freeze them until I have the time to do them, and for dead flies, it is much simpler. I use completely natural light and the longest possible exposure for the amount of light to get the best possible depth of field. When I am using this technique I link the camera to a television set to improve my view for focusing and so on and trigger the camera remotely. I sit the fly on an upturned petrie dish set on a piece of white paper so that its shadow falls underneath it and outside of the range of the photograph. It is very important to set your white balance if using a digital camera too.

I almost never take 'in situ' shots of flies in their natural habitat, as I usually can't be bothered carrying a camera around along with all the other gear that seems to be necessary in the field. Also, I find having to take photographs interferes with my observing. Whenever possible I prefer to just point at a fly and request a companion to photograph it.