I took this last summer as I am way behind looking at my photos. There was water around these leaves and the bees knew it.
Anything helps
Is this a composite: No
6Dii 100-400 ii 1/320 f/16 400mm iso 500 used diffused flash.
Dean, the lighting on this bee is really nice. The vertical crop works really well with the position of the bee. It was nice that you were able to find him on a leaf that was in the vertical position too. They do like to find water, so I’m sure he was quenching his thirst from the droplets on the leaf. Nice fine. It is good to be behind in post processing. I don’t have too much of a problem with that. Things are starting to show up here in NC, so maybe I can get some shots of bugs, bees, and spiders, etc. I love the color combination of the bee with the green leaves.
Oh she’s so sweet. I love that you got her tongue sticking out. Thirsty girl. If you have the room, I’d like to see a crop with her more on the left of the frame. The roundish leaf on the left is a little eye-catching. Terrific focus and detail in the bee.
Hi Dean,
The lighting is ideal for this honeybee–it is soft and the highlights that are present are not overpowering. Using longer focal lengths for macro shots give very pleasing shots with ample detail and soft BG’s. If so desired, you could re-crop the photo to create some asymmetry with the comp. But for vertical shots of insects, I believe that your presentation works nicely and I would leave it as presented. Well done…Jim
Dean, this is a fine catch of this bee getting a drink. The soft light sure lets her stand out with all the green surroundings.
Great detail on the bee, and I love the perch and all that blurred green in the BG.
Thanks @Shirley_Freeman , @Kris_Smith , @Mike_Friel , @Jim_Zablotny , and @Mark_Seaver for the input. I am still working with this lens and it seems even at f/16 there is a narrow DOF which is good for small insects. The 100-400 ii lets me focus 3 feet away which helps.
Dean, the DOF for a given f-stop depends on the magnification (which is determined by the focal length of the lens and the subject to camera distance). There are two ways that photographers work around this fundamental optical phenomenon; 1) large crops (the larger working distance means more apparent DOF in the cropped image) or 2) stacking.
