Hunting!

[persephone]

...insects

I LOVE hunting bees ...LINK

and here is one I caught yesterday :D FIXED LINK

anyone else?

any tips?

(no, I don't have a DSLR)

Edited November 5, 2009 by persephone

[Kirislin]

the second link says it's private.

[persephone]

Think I've fixed it

[PossumCorner]

...insects .... anyone else? ...any tips? ...

Definitely equally addicted, no tips though. I think the biggest thing is endless patience.

It does help to use a macro lens on a DSLR up to a point. But sometimes it is easier to work a bit wider (so a point-and-shoot is fine) and nail the focus so that you can crop within reason and not lose too much quality. This one is from the other day with a Sigma macro lens (150mm 2.8 - I got this so I can shoot bees and spiders without quite the risk of being bitten (or just scared witless). It might compromise quality as against a 60mm or 100mm, not sure. And as a prime lens for normal use, like portraits without being in someone's face the 150 is lovely and very sharp.

I do a lot of messing with settings: this one was shutter priority at 800th, gave a 5.6 fstop, and had ISO on 400 (the camera a Nikon D90). It was almost sunny but very late afternoon early evening, thin wispy clouds.

Bees working Capeweed

Separately, our camera club (Knox Photographic Society) has an exhibition just now as a local fire brigade fundraiser at the Warratina Lavender Farm in Wandin. Lovely setting, it is in the lavender drying shed, which is used for art exhibitions when not in use for drying lavender - that starts at the end of November when they harvest. So just now there is a ton of lavender in flower, thousands of bees: and it is just as hard to get that good shot as if there was only one. But lots of scope to practice: some of us have taken hundreds of shots over the last few days in the quiet times while baby-sitting the exhibition.

Yesterday I got only a few out of 150 that I feel quite happy about. Today I haven't looked at my results yet, and also tried some shots with a "cheap" 70-300 Nikon kit lens, set at about 200mm and with a polarising filter. I think it has richened the colour of the lavender, but I had the lens on an older Nikon D70.

If your camera has a macro setting and you can turn auto-focus off, it's better to focus on the subject, then fine-tune the focus by moving the camera rather than trying to auto-focus. The shots on your page are great, you're probably using your gear to its limits anyway.

Edit to add: this is one of yesterdays, same lens set normal not macro, standing a couple of metres away, huge crop.

Edited November 7, 2009 by PossumCorner

[persephone]

THanks possum Corner! That bee with all the pollen is well caught I love it because of all the yellow shades- from the flower and the bee and the pollen..toning into th eyellowish shading of parts of the background

nice!

I do tend to mostly use auto focus for bees...they don't stay still enough for manual focus most of the time

[sandyl]

Oooh bee's!

Here's my crack at capturing the lively buggars! One of many photo's taken whilst crawling amongst the ground

Sandy.

[persephone]

Ha ! like that one - he looks as if he's sucking the end of the jacaranda flower

[Kirislin]

I would love to capture a bee in flight, haven't succeeded yet. Seems creatures need to be a bit slower for me.