bumblebee

[Nancy Bell]

At a roadside rest area, in Michigan, I was attracted to a bright yellow patch of goldenrod in bloom. Then I noticed it was full of bees and other feeding insects and the rest stop turned into a mini photo session! I was particularly impressed with all the pollen collected on the hind legs of this bee. Canon 1D Mark IV, Canon 100 f2.8 macro, tripod, 1/640, f6.3, ISO 400. c & c most appreciated.

[Mitch Haimov]

Another fine pollen-covered bee image, Nancy! Excellent sharpness and detail, you handled the yellows well. The pollen (both that collected on the hind leg and the dusting everywhere else) add interest and tell a story. Congrats. My only suggestion would have been to point the camera a little further left and perhaps slightly lower.

[Jonathan Ashton]

I very good shot Nancy, you managed to isolate the bumble bee rather well, it could have easily become a little lost. Excellent lighting/exposure and super detail.

[Nancy Bell]

Thank you Mitch & Jonathan. Mitch, good point about position. However the bees were very active and no real time to rearrange myself for any individual insect. I pretty much took my chances with what landed nearby! Lots of deletes...

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Nancy. Very nice sharpness and detail on your bee and I like that you captured it with its proboscis extended while feeding. The very full pollen sac and the scattered pollen grains add interest. In an ideal world, I would wish for softer light - not much you can do on a sunny day except use a diffusion screen (if you have some extra hands to hold it :S3:). If this was mine, I'd be tempted to clone some of the specular highlights on the bee. Overall, this is very well done!

[Nancy Bell]

Thanks, Steve. A good suggestion about the diffusion screen (and the extra hands:bg3:!). I started removing the most obvious specular highlights and then sort of gave up...but I should go back!