Blue Banded Bee in flight

[dpastern]

Not my best shot, spotted this one on the garden but couldn't get close. This is a 100% crop. Taken from around 2-3 foot away. That all said, it's hard to focus on these suckers from that distance, so I'm pretty damn happy that I did a decent job. I had one chance before it zoomed off and nailed it.

Dave

[leon]

Top shot David you were lucky indeed to spot that one, well done.

Leon

[dpastern]

They're actually easy to spot, cos they move so fast (much faster than a normal bee) and there is a slight twang to their movement too (at least to my ears). Sadly, they're hard to get close to, and unless you catch them resting, you won't really get close enough for a 1:1 shot. This is my best shot of one yet, so I'm pretty stoked. It's far far far from perfect, but...beggars can't be choosers!

Dave

[jjjnettie]

What a super image David!!!
Love it.

[DavidU]

That's a Nat Geo quality shot:thumbsup:

[bloodhound31]

Lovely mate. Well captured on the wing!

Baz.

[troypiggo]

Nice work, Dave.

[telecasterguru]

David,

That's a fabulous image. I saw one of these bees in the lavender patch yesterday but they flit around all over the place giving me no chance.

Frank

[dpastern]

Thanks guys. Frank - don't worry, you weren't alone. Fast lil buggers they are and they never stay still. I'm surprised that this turned out as good as it did to be honest.

Dave

[StephenM]

Well captured Dave!

Cheers,
Stephen

[Dennis]

A very nice shot David despite the unfavourable distance of the subject and their dislike for staying still!

Cheers

Dennis

[astro_south]

good shooting Dave

[dpastern]

Thanks everyone.

Dave

[gary]

Hi Dave,

Great shot!

If you happened to watch the SBS documentary the other day about the problem of
parasitic mites on honey bees around the world, I am sure you would have enjoyed
some of the high-speed cinematography it had of bees hovering in flight.

[Waxing_Gibbous]

"Not my best shot"
Eeeeesh.:rolleyes:

Its a great shot. Don't sell yourself short.

[dpastern]

Gary - I missed it. Dang!

Peter - I'm pretty hard on myself with my images, it's the only way to get better!

I do tend to make a lot of my macro shots look easy because I've got a LOT of experience in the field, but it's taken a LOT of practice. These days I generally nail shots first time round, which is always nice I guess. :)

The old adage 'practice makes perfect' is so true. If you saw my first attempts at macro imaging, you'd laugh. I've come a long way, and I've been lucky enough to have been taught a lot by some very nice fellow macro images (Brian Valentine, aka LordV; Rick aka bald_eagle; frank aka hatch_1971; Omri Alon - can't remember his first name lol, he rarely mentions it). All of these guys post on POTN, with some also on FM. All of them are superb photographers, far better than me.

Dave

[TrevorW]

Look a wingless bee,

levitation

well done Dave

[DRCORTEX]

Could you tell me the settings you used for that shot ?

Were you using a macro lens ?

Cheers
DOC

[ving]

they are a hard target. on ya dave!

[dpastern]

Canon EOS1D Mark IIn, Sigma 150mm f2.8 APO EX macro lens, manual focus mode. 1/200, f11, ISO 400, FEC set to -1/3 stop. Manually focused on the fly in a split second to get it in focus (and I did literally only have a split second, which is why I'm surprised that I nailed it).

Dave - thanks!

Dave