Another summer visitor arrived this afternoon while I was lens-testing:
Another summer visitor arrived this afternoon while I was lens-testing:
Lovely! We need all the well-fed bees we can get.
Obviously, the lens is a keeper.
That's a nice look at springtime. Everything is brown here. Those little critters can be moving fast to photograph. Flash?Originally Posted by bae
Oh, these are the devil to try to catch with this lens. It's a macro lens, so it has a very shallow depth of field. In addition, as you get closer to your subject, you get a fair bit less light.
This lens opens up to F2.8 and remains pretty crisp and flat even wide open, but then the depth of field is too shallow to get the whole bee, or even just its head, in focus. So you have to stop down a bit, but, then, less light.
And then the bee is wriggling and moving, and the flower moving a bit in the breeze, so you can't just set up a tripod. So these are hand-held shots.
I did this and the previous insect photo with outdoor light, mid-day, with a bit of overcast.
The rate of "keeper" photos is fairly low with this method, but with modern digital cameras no real film is wasted. So far, the best technique I've come up with involves getting focus "close" with the focus ring (and the modern digital camera's focus-peaking indicators), and then slightly moving myself back and forth to track the moving insect. I seem to get about 20%-ish keepers, and that's with a purely mechanical-focus lens, no auto-focusing AI was used for this project.
Much to learn still :-). Any sort of ring light or flash would improve the situation immeasurably, but as I started out doing astrophotography, the whole "flash" thing is a mystery to me still.
I've dabbled in macro photos a bit and usually try some summer and spring flower photos. I have a small kit with a diffuser and and different color reflectors to clamp onto a tripod for flowers. Bug photos are hard, though and I'm not that patient. I believe my macro lens is a fixed 100mm f4 on a full frame sensor and I've sometimes used a 1.6X doubler. I need to dust it off soon. I've mostly done bird photos for a volunteer project and hobby landscapes.
PBS had a great feature about a guy who became obsessed with bee filming. He has quite the gear.
https://www.mygardenofathousandbees.com/
That little,guynis doing his job, spreading pollen.
Again, beautiful picture, bae. Thanks for sharing.
To give pleasure to a single heart by a single act is better than a thousand heads bowing in prayer." Mahatma Gandhi
Be nice whenever possible. It's always possible. HH Dalai Lama
In a world where you can be anything - be kind. Unknown
That's a great picture, Bae!
You might enjoy some of the work by Bill Johnson. He wrote a great monthly column devoted to garden insects and featuring his photography in Horticulture magazine. Unfortunately, he doesn't appear to be a current contributor, but I always enjoyed his work. He has a website: https://billjohnsonbeyondbutterflies...of-pollinators
I won “ Best in Show” in the daffodil show this weekend with this floral design that interprets the song “Lady Marmalade.” It was fun to make. The second photo is a large design I made for the lobby of the show hall.
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Congrats, Iris! Just lovely!
My therapist told me the way to achieve true inner peace is to finish what I start. So far today, I have finished two bags of M&Ms and a chocolate cake. I feel better already!
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