Balancing Act

[Paul Lagasi]

Its been fairly warm and humid up here, so I haven't been out much. I managed this image of what I think is an Adrenid Bee..lolol..I finally got a insect book. At least I think it is but I'm pretty safe there's 1300 bees in this group worldwide...Thanks for looking
D300
Nikon 105 macro 2.8
1/640
f4.5
iso-640
handheld
vr on

[Bob Miller]

Hi Paul.....The first thing that stands out to me is oof plant and the noise in the bg. Is this a large crop? Next time you might consider more DOf with a smaller f stop....as much of the bee seems a bit soft. Hope to see more posts!

[Jackie Schuknecht]

Like your comp and the position of the bee Paul. Agre it looks a little soft. Do you sharpen for web. Might want to try LAB sharpening too. Think you can get more sharpness out of the bee.

[Kaushik Balakumar]

Lovely green BG.
Eye, thorax and legs (towards us) look sharp. You had sufficiently fast shutter speed - may be stopping down the aperture would've got you more DOF as pointed above...?

[Jerry van Dijk]

Nice bee and pleasing perch. Agree with comments already given.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Paul,
Yep...the DOF got you here....as Kaushik mentioned....eye and near legs are sharp...so it's falloff on DOF. Even w/o flash.....1/2500 SS puts you at f8.....probably have entire body and good portion of wing sharp.....but also some unwanted elements. As you had the perfect angle on it......moving was not an option! Really close on this one!

[Julie Kenward]

Paul, I really like the bee as shown here but agree that the OOF flower at the left side is a bit distracting. Still, lovely light and the pose/angle of the bee really works for me. I also think a bit more sharpness on the bee head/eye would be nice and NR on the BG would help. I do like the image overall, though!

[Paul Lagasi]

Thanks for all the comments..feedback appreciated..