Scotish bumblebee

[Hazel Grant]

Not sure there is any real difference in Scottish etc, but I did take this in Edinburgh.

D40x, manual, cloudy afternoon, 1/80, f14, 400iso, 185mm, no flash, hand held

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Hazel,
These are challenging to get! You got a good pose and perch.....but the light here kept the bee a bit dark. The flash may have allowed you to open him up......but these guys don't hang around too often in one place! I like the BG with a hint of some of the flowers......remember to try the flash in these dark overcast conditions as that may be the only thing that saves the image. Just keep that in mind for next time out in the field.

[Dave Leroy]

Lovely setting with flower and bg. Colours look great.

Photo as presented appears to be on the dark side. Another option to get the appearance of a bit more light would be to up the ISO.

Dave

[Hazel Grant]

thanks for the comments. I really need to pay specific attention to the darkness factor. That seems to be a "theme" in critiques I get. Need to re-tune my eye. So, I did a lighter layer in a partial opacity and merged them. I think that added a lighter layer and brought out some highlights. An improvement? Also, I'll work on having the flash ready next time.

[Brendan Dozier]

Nice looking composition & BG, Hazel. Agree about darkness, repost does look better, also may want to run some NR on BG. Good suggestions from Roman & Dave.

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Hazel. Bumblebees can be frustrating because they seldom sit still for a nice portrait. You captured a nice view of the working bee with its head in a flower - doing what they do best. There are good suggestions above about darkness, flash, and background noise. In addition, I would suggest cropping about 2/3 of the space between the left edge and the bee's wing - this would get the bee off center and closer to a ROT position.