I spent many, many hours over a period of 3 weeks hanging around this aloe plant to get an in flight shot of this bee. I tried using a tripod but the bee avoided the flower the camera was focused on. I eventually had to hand hold and wait next to the plant. These cute bees are very fast fliers but hovered a split second when approaching a specific flower. The working distance with the lens at this magnification was 10cm and at f16 the dof was 2.24mm.
Canon 5D Mark11
MP E 65mm; MT 24EX
apert f16; ss1/200; iso 200
slight crop, sharpen, nr, levels, curves and softening of flash generated highlights.
Thank you Nick. Much appreciated. I have mixed feelings on the 2nd flower. I feel like it would look better without it but then I battle with the idea of removing something from the image. From an artistic point of view it should be removed but from a naturalist or purist point of view it should stay. I don't know??:confused: I think that if I do decide to remove the flower I will have to crop some space from the bottom to balance the shot. I would love to hear some more opinions on this to help me make up my mind.:)
Hi Vida, I agree with Nick on this. I would take out the backround flower because IMO it is a bit distracting and takes away from the viewer's eye remaining on your center of interest. You did a great job on this and your efforts are well rewarded...
It is a lovely image and your hard work and persistence certainly paid off well. I was so fascianted by the bee I had not noticed the second flower until I read Nick's comment. I actually don't mind it. If you do decide to remove it then I also feel some cropping from bottom would be needed. Very well done. Dave
Beautiful inflight image, Vida! For me, the answer would be to have backed off just a bit so the entire front flower was in the image - I like seeing the interaction between the bee and the entire flower for some reason. As the image is now, I would clone that second flower out as it adds nothing to the beauty or story of the image and then I'd crop it to a pano size and let that bee and flower speak for itself.
Thank you Dave M, Dave L, Morkel and Julie. Your comments are much appreciated. I think I am now convinced and will remove the flower and crop some more from the bottom. Julie, I can't fit the whole flower and bee in the frame. My lens starts at 1x magnification and can go up to 5x. The lens starts where typical macro lenses stop and that makes an in flight shot all the more challenging. This shot was taken at 1x.:)
Hey Vida, I was wondering when you would show your wonderful images on this site. Excellent detail on the bee, and I like the mottled colours in the BG. I agree removing the OOF flower will work. Cheers, Stu.
Another excellent image, Vida, and I can fully appreciate how it could take 3 weeks of trying to get an image of this quality. I could go either way regarding the second flower - I think both alternatives can work. Isn't it nice to have options with digital? :)
Hi Stu and Steve. Thx for the great feedback. I have now removed the flower and cropped some more. I think it looks better but please excuse the cloning work as I'm still struggling to master it.:)
Hi Vida, extremely cool shot! The pose of the bee is great and wonderful details. I actually prefer the original image compositionwise, because the bee is not on the center line horizontally. I also like the repetition of the flower in the BG. You might try a faster shutter speed to get more of the wings. I'm guessing your camera can easily handle the higher ISO levels needed. Nice work!
Jerry.