I was out today at the desert museum take more butterflies but found a lot of bees
I did not do much with this image other than lower the exposure and saturation of the background. I did a square crop from the right. The sun was in the low southwest. Welcome any Feeback
Canon 90D 180mm Macro Gimbal on a monopod. ISO 1000 1/250 f/16
Dean, I like bees when I find them too, so you took advantage of what was provided by nature. A nice look at the bee. That’s an interesting flower you found him on, I’m not familiar with it. It seems to be very reflective of the light. I had a bug like that yesterday and realized after the fact that I should have had someone to hold the diffuser to shade him, or had a polarizing filter. I had neither, so was disappointed with the results, but at least I got out with my camera and a bug posed. A good day, as was for you to go looking for butterflies and bees posed. I love the light on the bee, and the details are great. Very nice composition in my opinion with the square crop, the red flower on one side and the bee on the other.
Thanks for the comments @Shirley_Freeman . I will try a polarizer, however, I thought those are really used to block reflections like a reflection of light off water photographing a plant on the shore. My curiosity is up so I will try that next time. I get a lot of reflection from bees.
Dean, I was mainly talking about those tiny speckles of light on the flower, which certainly isn’t a big deal, but reminded me of what I had dealt with the same day while photographing a bug that put off those speckles of light and I wondered if I had used a polarizer if that might would have helped. Same on your flower. Yes, polarizers are great for water, but I think also on reflective light from other sources as well. Now I do need to try it. I hope it helps you as well. It does cut down on our light a stop or so, but if the subject is willing, we can try it, if it doesn’t help, we can take it off. Good luck with it.
Oh she’s wonderful! Such great sharpness and detail, in her and the flower. I echo Shirley’s thoughts about using a polarizer. I use one with macro quite a bit and it helps bring out some depth in color when used carefully. Sometimes if one is cranked on too much it muddies color so you have to experiment and get a feel for how things look as you turn it more on versus more off. Fall foliage is one such thing that requires careful handling to cut the glare, but not block up the colors. These days you can get a high transmission polarizer that won’t stop down your exposures as much as they did in the past. I believe my B&W models for my macro lens is one of those, but the one I use on the other lenses is darker.
Thanks for the update @Shirley_Freeman and @Kris_Smith. I do thave that polarizer that has high transmission and is very thin. This bush with the flowers (feather duster I think is the name) has quite a few bees so I might try using a tripod next time because even with the monopod I shake a little. With this closeness there is very little wiggle room.
