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Bumble Mee
July 1, 2006
Bumble 1 Canon 30d
Bumble 2 Canon 30d
Bumble 3 Canon 30d
Bumble 4 Canon 30d
Bumble 5 Canon 30d
This morning, Sprigs left a comment on my Bee Power entry below, asking exactly how many photographs it takes to get a good shot of a bee. Well, I'm not the Owl in the Jiffy Pop commercial... it doesn't go something like this ~ "A-One... A-Two... and then I kill the bee and pose him post mortem on the flower. (If only it COULD work that way!)
*sinister grin*
My answer is, it depends. I've YET to shoot a bee in mid-flight, as demonstrated in the images above. You can nail the focus on them as they sit on a flower, but the buggers take off on a plane of focus that is... well... not the same plane of focus you focused on when they were on the freaking flower. It's mind-boggling. You see, telephoto lenses have an extrememly narrow line of focus... especially macro lenses, so one must stop way down to increase one's chances. However, when you stop down, you increase your shutter speed, so the damn bee... whose wings are moving at like 1200 beats per second... will get blurry AND out of focus. I've been doing this for years now and all I can say is one must have to make a small sacrifice... maybe a rabbit or a goat... before going out to shoot FLYING insects and come back with one that is both "good" and tack sharp. Having just been a bee in a prior life also helps, at least that's what I've heard.
As for shooting a non-flying, or walking bee (see below), it depends on how fast the dude is walking. They rarely sit still, and they do this Walk 'n Fly combo thing, which makes the whole exercise even more difficult. I'll focus the camera and move my torso back and forth in an attempt to keep the bugger in focus. If I do get the bee in focus, often it's just his ass that's sharp, or... his left middle toe. Zen monks use this as an exercise in patience... me? I just sweat and swear under my breath a lot.
But~to finally answer Sprig's question, I'd have to say on average, to shoot an in-focus, well-composed, un-blurred shot of a bee whose butt isn't facing the camera, and a rogue petal isn't getting in the way of the lens ~ on average ~ it probably takes me a 50-100 shots, often more. I often stop in the midst of what I'm doing to delete the obviously BAD ones in an effort to unclog my flash card while I'm in the field.
Basically, as with a lot of good photography, the most important factor in taking good pictures is to show up and do it. One reason the images below don't work is the quality of light. It was near dusk, and I was shooting in the shadows wide open. I didn't spend a lot of time color correcting these because the light was BLUE to begin with. Light is everything, and you never know when good light might materialize. Magic is everywhere, people, but you have to practice, practice, practice, so that you'll be ready when it's ready for you.
I hope this answers Sprigs' inquiry. Just to be quirky, I may have to make this an ongoing Blurry Bee series.
Left middle toe in focus.
Camera shake and part of wing in focus.
The Walk 'n Fly Combo
Posted by susan at July 1, 2006 12:00 AM
Comments
Oh, to bee!
Posted by: jzr at July 1, 2006 9:11 AM
I am crazy in love with these bee photos. I even love the blurry shots, especially the third one down, where the bee's rump is in the camera's face. I. LOVE. HIM.
Posted by: Lynn at July 1, 2006 12:05 PM
Sprig!
That's my favorite one too... I totally agree with you. These bumble pictures are enchanting in their bumbling imperfection!
Posted by: susan at July 1, 2006 12:32 PM
You can actually see his little wings vibrate a bit. And the veins in the wings. What beauty. It is one busy bee for sure. Facinating. All of them. What a gift you have and thank you for sharing.
Posted by: janet at July 1, 2006 2:41 PM
Thank you for sharing your advice, i nearly fall off my chair when i saw the bee photo! Amazing how you mananged to post a pure clear image, without killing it!!
it is tough enough taking photos of still mife let alone a hyper active busy body bee!
Posted by: tongue in cheek at July 1, 2006 3:46 PM
As always you continue to inspire me to be a better photographer.If only I were as good.
Posted by: yolanda at July 2, 2006 4:03 PM
