More bees coming around now at the botanical gardens, so I tried some bees flying around.
Anything helps, I wonder if a wider DOF would be better
Is this a composite: No
90D Canon 100-400 ii (f/4-5.6) with the D500 close up. ISO 500 1/2500 f/8 HH
The bee is nicely sharp, Dean. The yellows in the flower and in the bee make a warmly inviting view.
It’s not the best angle and sure, you might have opened up a bit, but a BIF is a BIF and I love how she’s coming in to go straight down. Nice light shows up the detail you got. Those little pollen baskets are filling up!
I really like this a lot! The bee is sharp, except for the outer parts of the wing, showing a glimpse of its flight.
The colors are nice and warm.
Ya, a bit more DOF would be nice, but not necessary IMO. I think the shadow on the left is just a tad distracting, but it’s great!
Makes me really hungry for the flowers to start blooming up here!
Dean, I’m so glad to hear that the bees are coming around. I saw this earlier and had all intentions of commenting. Not sure what happened. I agree with the others, I like this shot. Bees in flight aren’t all that easy to capture. I was trying that a couple of weeks ago myself. Great job!
Thanks for the comments. I wondered about taking out the shadow on the left somehow. Bees flying do not give much thinking time so I may experiment a little with DOF. Would a softer background be better to aim for, @Kris_Smith . I was not sure if sharp focus on the flower was a better way to go so the flower had details. The bee is the subject so I am thinking even a more softer flower would have been better.
You could, if you want and have Photoshop, blur the background using selection and masking. I’ve done it successfully with birds. You can use just a gaussian blur or a tilt-shift blur that mimics a wider aperture, but you can place the safe zone of focus right on the bee and the flower below her in this example.
Great detail on the in flight bee Dean, very attractive. The flower he chose makes a great natural frame and landing pad for his action. I think the DOF is fine as is; the main attraction is sharp with enough detail surrounding him to convey place.
