A study in green

[Ian Cassell]

I've only seen this green bee in my garden once before.

Canon 7D
Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro
Canon 430EX + Diffuser

1/250sec f/5.6 ISO 100

S/H, Crop, Minimal sharpening in CS5

Edit: After a posting on bugguide.net, I believe this is a Sweat Bee (Agapostemon melliventris)

[Julie Kenward]

Nicely done, Ian! You got a beautiful angle which shows a large part of the bee and you got a large part of it in focus. The BG works nicely with the bee although I would think about cloning or toning over the bright streak on the left side just to keep it from pulling attention from the bee. I also think you could take a slight chop off the top to move the bee a little higher in the frame and eliminate some of the extra white space. Overall, a very nice sweat bee image!

[Ken Childs]

Hey Ian, there's some great detail on that bug! Jules has a good point about the bright streak on the left but I think I might handle it differently. Cloning or painting in more of it over the dark area in the UL and them maybe toning it down slightly. The cut off antenna is a bit distracting so I would be tempted to complete it by painting it in. I think it would be easy to do a convincing job. Some more NR could also help.

Overall it's a good shot that could look even better with just a few tweaks. :)

[Ian Cassell]

Thanks Jules and Ken :)

I think I'll go back and play with both approaches and see how they look. The tips, as usual, are appreciated.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Ian,
Great suggestions by Jules and Kens are definitely worth exploring too! Besides the clipped antenna.....the comp here really works nicely......but not a deal breaker for a nicely composed image and sharp where it needs it!