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Home > TME Community > Share Your Work > Macro > Buzz
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Buzz
Started September 7, 2009 @ 1:27am by RickT
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RickT
Posts: 1,694 |
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| Buzz | September 7, 2009 @ 1:27am | It's not that I've quit taking pictures of spiders, but I've got lavender blooming in the back yard and it's being pummeled by every bee within flight range. Most are honeybees, but mixed in with the action are these colorful orange-abdomen native bees. These native bees work the lavender differently from the honeybees. They also seem to work a bit faster. (Probably don't have a union, and will be working tomorrow--Labor Day.) As soon as they land, they dive deeply into the flower bunch. Trying to get a picture of the head before it is buried is a challenge. In contrast, the honeybees work much more on the upper level of the bunch.
Canon 40D, lens Canon 100mm macro, f/16, 1/250 w/flash, ISO 100, handheld
Meanwhile, over at the echinacea flowers, only these large black and yellow bumblebees were at work. At least they were moving slower than the lavender crews.
RickT
Boulder, Colorado
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rwteichler/
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Flo
Posts: 15,844 |
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| September 7, 2009 @ 6:57am | Rick, that's interesting about the different ways different species work the same flowers. Perhaps honey bees have a longer proboscis than the native bees? So perhaps the honey bees don't need to dive way into the flowers to get their sips of nectar?
Your images, as always, are spectacular!
Flo - PPY
"May we live in peace without weeping. May our joy outline the lives we touch without ceasing. And may our love fill the world, angel wings beating." aziza
http://photos.tonebytone.com |
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| September 7, 2009 @ 2:24pm | Rick, these are wonderful macro images, so clear and sharp that I can see the beautiful detail in the wings. You even got catch light in the eyes! Well done.
Katie
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delbrajan
Posts: 469 |
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| September 7, 2009 @ 3:01pm | Rick - These are great bee images. I love the bright orange on the local bees. I don't think I've ever seen a bee quite like them. And I am consistently amazed at all the great details in your macro shots. You have inspired me to start experimenting with my flash when I shoot bees and spiders. I think I'm already using the same camera and lens that you use, but you're getting much better details than I've gotten. Do you adjust your flash compensation in any particular way for these shots?
Jan
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RickT
Posts: 1,694 |
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| September 7, 2009 @ 5:29pm | Flo, that proboscis hypothesis is a good one. Hadn't occurred to me. I figured that because there were so many more European honeybees working, that the "low-hanging fruit"--the surface flowers in a cluster--were a bit played out, and that going deep was just a good option. I'll try to buttonhole an entomologist and see if there's an accepted explanation.
Thanks for the encouragement, Katie.
Jan, I was using the Canon Macro Twin Lite as my flash, although I've had good results with the on-camera flash, too. For these daylight shots I did not do any exposure compensation. With the ISO set way down at 100 and using f/16, though, the background comes out dark. When I was shooting a light-colored spider at night, I found that I needed to adjust the exposure down 1 1/2 to 2 stops because the system was trying to meter all that darkness and leaving my subject blown out. Whenever possible I've been using a tripod to steady my shots--the 100mm lens with the additional weight of the lens-mounted flash can be a load. These were shot hand-held and manually focused, which meant that I got a much lower percentage of clear images. I find that my Canon 100mm macro lens does a terrible job of auto-focus at macro distances.
RickT
Boulder, Colorado
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rwteichler/
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assignment
Community Assignment #53
Picture Window
Due Date: September 16, 2011 |
Have you heard about the Backyard Shots Photography Guide "Street Portraiture with CraigTanner"?
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