This was taken in July along the Bessie Butte trail outside of Bend, OR. There were amazingly a ton of different kinds of bees, wasps and butterflies converging on a variety of different high desert flowers. I really like the color combination of these flowers with the wasps. Do you see the bit of wasp inside the one flower?
Specific Feedback Requested
Anything, I was pretty close, but cropped it for better detail.
Technical Details
Is this a composite: No
Nikon D3400
ISO 100
210mm (I was trying 300mm but it wouldn’t focus, I tried 70mm but I couldn’t get close enough without disturbing the wasp)
f/11
1/400
Crop
Vanessa, great look at these wasps (yes, I see the little one up into the flower). Nice detail and colors, with a nice soft background. For me, I wish the two blooms (one at top and one at the bottom) weren’t cut off and at the edge of the image, as it seems to pull my eye away from the subject. I’m not familiar with the flower, but I really love it. The stem with future blooms (I guess), is really intriguing me. A nice shot.
Vanessa, thank you for sharing the full image. It helps me see what you have, and maybe help figure a different composition that may improve this beautiful flower and wasps. I took the liberty and downloaded it and tried a crop that you may like.
I think the stem with the buds help balance things a little. I didn’t remove or tone down the brighter out of focus stem to the left, as you have indicated you don’t have the software to accomplish that right now. What do you think? I know it makes the wasp a bit smaller in the frame, but the flower at the top has enough showing of it that I feel it isn’t pulling the eye away from the subject. Just a thought.
@Shirley_Freeman Yes, I really like the crop you did, because you’re not wondering about the flower above and by totally eliminating the flowers below is good because they weren’t helping the picture at all. Thanks for your help!
Beautiful bold colors and look at the wasp. I was exploring different crops and thought I would throw another one in the mix. Any way you slice it, so to speak, a nice close up view.
@Harley_Goldman This looks great, Harley! There’s only whole flowers this way since I didn’t get the top flower all the way in my shot. And I like the wasp being closer too! Thanks for looking and your inputs!
A really terrific image, Vanessa - one of your best, in my opinion. I do like some of the cropping suggestions, above but it’s a beautiful image to begin with.
@terryb Thanks, Terry, but it really was the setting, lighting and colors, nothing that I did. My camera being what it is has its limits but I’m finding as long as I get the settings right it seems to perform best in bright light. It took me awhile to understand that, because all the online, and video courses I’ve taken emphasize low light, sunrise, sunset, etc… but my camera’s sensor isn’t very sensitive, I think is the word, so it can’t handle a very high ISO and doesn’t see well in the dark! But thank you so much for liking it! I appreciate your feedback and encouragement!
