Bee's in Flight...

[Remorhaz]

My intention with this large bright orange flower was to focus stack and attempt to blur the large fern fronds growing just behind the flower more. The problem here was that the flower head was quite large and you'd need a reasonably small aperture to cover the whole flower head but then the ferns close behind would not blur enough and would be distractingly just out of focus. The stacked result worked to an extent - see at the bottom.

However what soon interested me more were the bees feasting on the abundance of bright orange pollen on the flower heads. I quickly took the camera off the tripod and switched to bee target practice mode - it's surprisingly difficult to get a good shot of the bees in flight. Just getting them standing on the flower itself is hard enough because they are always darting about and once in flight it's ridiculously hard to follow and focus on them - patience and timing is key.

Here I was glad to be using the Nikon AF-S 105mm rather than my Tamron 90mm because the Nikon focuses much quicker (which doesn't really matter for macro but does for insects in flight ). I upped the shutter speed and gradually closed down the aperture and pumped the ISO as I progressively moved closer and closer to frame tighter shots of the bees on the flower.

I took well in excess of 50 frames to capture a few nicely sharp and decently composed images - the favourite of which is this one (just for you Cam )

Target Acquired


and these of the bee collecting pollen on the flower

This is MY Flower!




and here is a wider shot showing the bee in relation to one of the huge flowers (and they were very large) it was collecting from



and finally the original intent - the focus stacked flower I first took (you knew you couldn't get away without me throwing something stacked in there somewhere didn't you ) - 10 frames [1/640 sec at f/4, ISO 100] - which it has to be said is far less interesting now

[Matt. K]

A tricky subject well done. Now the real holy grail of macro is a dragon fly in flight. Go get em tiger!

[sirhc55]

I agree a very tricky shot that has been accomplished brilliantly.

But I would suggest a hummingbird

[aim54x]

I love that first one! Great stuff Rodney!

[Alpha_7]

These are great Rodney - tough subject matter but I also love the colours and the lighting the photos really pop!

[Remorhaz]

A tricky subject well done. Now the real holy grail of macro is a dragon fly in flight. Go get em tiger!

I agree a very tricky shot that has been accomplished brilliantly. But I would suggest a hummingbird

Hmmm - dragonfly - probably doable - hummingbird... I'm guessing not

I love that first one! Great stuff Rodney!

Thanks Cam

These are great Rodney - tough subject matter but I also love the colours and the lighting the photos really pop!

Thanks - me too - I like greens and the offset of orange is good for me

[Mr Darcy]

hummingbird... I'm guessing not

Easy Peasy.
They sell them at one of the cake shops in Katoomba

[ozimax]

Great stuff Rodney, very tricky photography, excellently executed.

[Remorhaz]

hummingbird... I'm guessing not

Easy Peasy. They sell them at one of the cake shops in Katoomba

Ahh of course - probably not moving much either (unless Suren or Gerry are eating eat) so...

Great stuff Rodney, very tricky photography, excellently executed.

Thanks Ozi

[Mj]

Grrrr... some years ago a wasted a few afternoons trying to capture a worthy dragonfly image (mind you I was using a d70 with a 70-300/5.6) was somewhat disadvantaged.
The real problem with a DF is that they blend into the background so AF has a really hard time.

Good work on the bee captures... I think that they are plenty hard enough.

[surenj]

Nicely done Rodney. Next step is to build/buy an IR trigger for hummingbirds. Next will be lightning during the day.....