Bumble Bee

[Steve Maxson]

I found this Bumble Bee (Bombus sp.) last year about this time on goldenrod flowers on a cool early morning when it was still quite lethargic. 5D II, MP-E 65 mm, 1/80, f/16, ISO 400, MT24-EX (diffused), HH. The background is a print of OOF vegetation held by a Plamp attached to a tripod. I ran nr on the background and used NIK Color Efex Pro 4 to add a subtle vignette. DOF is very minimal with this lens and at this viewing angle it was not possible to get the whole bee in focus. All comments are welcome and appreciated.

[Markus Jais]

Beautiful close-up with great IQ and a wonderfully calm BG.

Markus

[stuart wanuck]

lovely with great clarity and nice bg

[Jonathan Ashton]

Steve your time and effort certainly paid off, I love the detail in the eye and mandibles, at this magnification I would not have expected any greater DOF, I like the image as is. I reckon the only way to get greater DOF is by stacking.

[Dave Leroy]

Very nice job on isolating the bumble bee. It amazes me how accurate the focus is for handholding and and extremely shallow dof. A nice diagonal look.
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[LindaHarden]

It is very interesting how you achieved the background on this. Something for me to think about. I like the angle and composition. I did fine my eye drawn to the darker green right at the top of the frame (where leaves are starting on each side of the stem?).

[Roman Kurywczak]

Great details as usual Steve and nice use of the BG!