Honey Bee Worker

[Mitch Haimov]

Found this fuzzy-eyed lethargic lady Monday morning. Moved like she was drunk. Wished I had a drop of honey for her...

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Perch (painted wood fence) is pretty horrible, as is the transition to blank black BG dividing the frame horizontally. But my first bee (and my first new photo since early September).

5DIII, MPE-65 macro lens, twin macro flash (diffused), hand held.
1/100 sec at f/11 and ISO 400. 2:1.

[Norm Dulak]

Hi Mitch.

The head and the closer legs are sharp, interesting and well exposed. And you handled the flash well. But this is one case where it might have been better to back off a little, to get more of the bee in focus. I also think it would be better to not crop so tightly, allowing a little more space above and in front of the subject.

[Mitch Haimov]

Thanks, Norm. I can agree about backing off a bit. I actually cropped from the top on this one as it was unbalanced with more negative space up there than on the right (no crop on the right). I didn't make an images at lower magnification than this this time, so I'm going to start another thread that is much tighter...

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Mitch. The fuzzy eyes on some bees are really interesting and you have good detail around the eye and within your DOF. The light from the flash is nicely diffused and I like the eye-level shooting angle. I would agree with Norm that it may have been better to shoot this one at 1:1 magnification (and f/16) to get a little more DOF and a little more room all around (and to give you more cropping options). I don't mind the black background on this image, though the brightness of the foreground is a little distracting. It was 5 degrees F here today so I think my insect photography is done for about 6 months. :S3:

[Mitch Haimov]

Thanks, Steve. We're still reaching the low 80s some days, but the little critters seem to know that their season is over as there is negligible activity. E.g., in 30-40 minutes of actively looking for insects, spiders, etc in a wooded area I found this bee and a few ants.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Very nice shot, the focus is good, ideally DOF would have covered the mouthparts but I know how tricky this can be.