A Tale of Two Bees
With blue skies finally breaking through the clouds, I had to take my camera out this morning. The rains had brought out weeds galore, and with the weeds: bees! I was intent on catching one (with the camera, of course).I settled next to a group of flowers by the banks of the Duck Pond. Bees swarmed around me, but none alighted on the plants in front of me. As my patience grew thin, some of my old weed friends tried to distract me.
“Here I am! Take photos of me!”
But I was not so easily distracted. With my camera focused on the flower in front of me, I waited. At last, a bee approached!
He hovered for a moment, indecisive.
As I snapped away, trying to make sure I got something in focus (I have no flash, the wind was blowing, and this bee was fast!), an onlooker seemed to mock my efforts:
Finally, the bee alighted, and in the perfect position…
I present to you: “Bee Butt.”
This guy was hungry! He made stop after stop along the flowers, somehow always managing to stay out of the field of view of my lens. Right before he flew off for good, he at last stopped at a flower where I could catch his silhouette.
Kind of.
I pondered all the things I did wrong during the shoot.
First, I was shooting with a wide-open aperture, which is never a good idea. The focus is nearly impossible to achieve and the chromatic aberrations are insane.
Second, I should have used flash. I just have no clue how to do that (mental note: learn flash!).
Third, I should have manually focused and waited for the focus indicator light rather than let the super-slow D-FA 100mm Macro go through its looooooooong focusing bit.
Fourth, I should have maybe gotten up a bit earlier to get better light.
I sighed internally.
But wait!
Maybe it wasn’t me!
Maybe it was just that bee!
After all, this one seemed to be a bit better at striking a pose ;)
April 9th, 20084:39 pm at
hey,
how do you get the even backgrounds? I can imagine the green to some extend, but the black ones?
great pics by the way!
greets,
R.
April 9th, 20087:23 pm at
Nice tale.
A confession - #2 strikes close to home. I got a 540 flash a year ago and still haven’t figured out how to use it. I keep thinking I should sell it, but then think, I really will learn how to use it for just this kind of use.
April 10th, 20087:31 am at
What a wonderfully entertaining story to go along with some wonderful pics. Love the squirrel, too cute!
April 15th, 200811:27 pm at
yeah, number 2!
Betsy, let me know if you sell that 540…
April 30th, 200811:17 pm at
Keitha, I am wondering if those blue flowers you captured were really blue or violet/purple. I recently discovered that my K20/K10 do not depict properly violet/purple colors.
Andrey