Bee and lavender

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Bee and lavender

June 18, 2013 by Mike Powell

One of the first rules of photography that I learned was the importance of keeping a subject’s eye in focus and I managed to accomplish that with this bee that I photographed yesterday. However, the depth of field turned out to be so shallow that only a few other parts of the bee are as precisely focused as the eye.

I was hand-holding my macro lens, which is not image-stabilized, and the sky was overcast, so I had to open up the aperture and keep the shutter speed fairly high to get a decent shot (f/6.3, 1/100 sec, ISO400). The bee was moving all around a patch of lavender in a neighbor’s garden, gathering nectar with its tongue, which is visible in the photo.

I stalked the bee for quite a while and a lot of my shots turned out to be blurry, but I ended up with a few that were ok. This is my favorite of the bunch and I think that the shallow depth of field, which is a shortcoming in many situations, is the primary reason that I like it.

Posted in Flowers, Gardening, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography | Tagged Alexandria VA, bee, Canon 100mm macro lens, Canon Rebel XT, lavender | 11 Comments

11 Responses

on June 18, 2013 at 1:22 am | Reply lylekrahn

You nailed that eye which is remarkable for the shutter speed you were using. Great shot.
on June 18, 2013 at 2:09 am | Reply cindy knoke

This is soooo good!
- on June 18, 2013 at 4:42 am | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks. It was a challenge (though a fun one) trying to get this shot.
on June 18, 2013 at 6:37 am | Reply New Hampshire Gardener

This is another amazing shot. Beautiful!
- on June 18, 2013 at 7:32 am | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks. I spent my entire time yesterday shooting with just my macro lens. I may have missed a few shots, but it’s enjoyable to try to get the kind of close-ups that I love.
on June 18, 2013 at 11:36 am | Reply afrenchgarden

What a beautiful bee. I wonder if it is an American bumble bee.
- on June 18, 2013 at 8:18 pm | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks. I think that you are right about the identity of the bee. We both were enjoying the lavender, which smelled wonderful.
on June 20, 2013 at 3:27 am | Reply Bruce Ruston

Great shot and great detail
- on June 20, 2013 at 4:50 am | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks, Bruce, for your kind words. Macro shots of moving subjects are so often hit-and-miss. There were a lot of out of focus shots that preceded and followed this one.
  - on June 20, 2013 at 4:55 am Bruce Ruston
    
    Yeah tell me about that one, but I do find that Macro helps with focusing skills in other areas and some times I treat my static bird shot like a macro and turn to manual focus 🙂 but only sometimes
on June 26, 2013 at 7:57 pm | Reply Bee and lavender—take 2 | Mike Powell

[…] little over a week ago, I did a posting that had a super close-up shot of a bee. Today’s shot was taken from farther away and has the […]