PhotograClare » bumble bee

White Tailed Bumblebee

Clare Topping — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 17:40:57 +0000

I went to Leicester University’s Botanical Gardens to do a bumblebee identification course this weekend, and decided to get there a little early in order to take some photos. Needless to say, I took a lot of photos – after all there were a lot of bees and a lot of flowers, and a lot of them were deleted, but this is one I kept.

From a compositional point of view I think it sticks to the rules, the bee is on a third, as is the lavender. I also like the feel of the shot – I can almost smell the lavender and hear the bees buzzing around.

This is a male bee (you can tell this by his yellow face) and is a bright yellow and black bee – they really stand out if you see them.

The shot was taken hand held – I had upped the ISO to 400, and put it on shutter priority, 1/125secs, at f/8.0 (needless to say my macro lens was put to use).

Bumble Bee

Clare Topping — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 11:21:26 +0000

Bumble Bee

I have been taking an increasing number of bee shots, partly due to a growing interest interest and partly because of an obsession with taking an increasingly better shot. However, on this occasion I was not primarily interested in taking photos of bees, but in the butterflies (in particular the Painted Ladies) that were attracted to the Verbena Bonariensis that I had planted in the front garden for this very purpose.
Whilst I did get some OK shots of the butterflies, I feel that this shot of a bumble bee was everything I hoped it would be, just without a butterfly. The bokeh (blurred background) makes the shot uncluttered, and, whilst the verbena stems in the background are noticeable, I don’t feel that they are too intrusive. The verbena to the side shows that the picture was taken in situ and not staged. The bee is in focus, despite the large aperture, even when viewed at 1:1, and, although she is only a small part of the picture, I find my eyes drawn to her.
The lens used was my trusty Canon 100mm Macro (a purchase I have never regretted), ISO 200, 1/250 secs, f/7.1. If I could take this picture again, the only change I would make would be to stop down the aperture a bit to give a little more depth of field, although this would impact the bokeh.

Flight of the Bumble Bee

Clare Topping — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 14:57:39 +0000

Bumble Bee in Flight

As I have previously stated, taking good photos of bees is more difficult than you would think and has become a bit of a mission for me this summer. However, taking a picture of a bee in flight is an entirely different level of difficult and remains an ambition not yet fulfilled.

This is my best effort to date. I was hand-holding with my 100mm macro lens early-ish in the morning, ISO 200, f/9.0, 1/640 secs. I would like to get it to look as though the wings were still, but I need a faster shutter speed, and that would have involved either less depth of field or a higher ISO rating.

I prefer, if possible not to go above ISO 200, I know that with my EOS 400D that ISO 400 should be OK, but I have tried and not really been happy with the results for macro work. I also prefer to be at a minimum of f/8.0 with my macro lens when taking photos of insects as it is difficult enough to get them in focus and to stay there. Finding that the shallow depth of field has rendered half of the insect out of focus in an otherwise great shot can be heartbreaking.

Bee – again

Clare Topping — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 06:27:22 +0000

Bumble Bee on Blackberry - Oregon Thornless

OK, so another shot of a bee. However, I am quickly coming to the conclusion that taking a picture of a bee is one of the hardest things I have tried so far in the world of photography. The problem is that they move so quickly from flower to flower and it is often dependent on the type of flower that they are visiting. This is one that I took in the evening in my back garden. It was visiting a blackberry and I took a number of pictures on both automatic and manual focus. As usual I tried to get too close in order to get a lot of detail and therefore, the switch to manual focus. I got a great shot, in focus, lots of detail, unfortunately, she had its head buried in a flower doing what bees do best.
The photograph I have chosen to show has been cropped in, but does have the bee’s head in view, it was taken with my Canon 100mm macro lens, hand held, automatic focus, 1/320 sec, f/9, ISO 200. Please let me know what you think.

Bee-utiful

Clare Topping — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 17:35:51 +0000

Bumble Bee

I have tried to capture bumble bees on many occasions, all with very little success. They are usually recognisable as a bee, but the fuzziness was not all down to the bee itself! They move so much, have so much work to do, that it is difficult to track them and to make sure you have a fast enough shutter speed.

This is my best attempt yet, and amazingly was taken with my Canon Ixus compact camera. This has a macro function, but other than changing the ISO rating I have no control over aperture or shutter speed.