Stingless Bee - Brisbane Botanical Gardens

[astro_south (Andrew)]

Been a while since I have posted in here so to break the drought I would like to share some macros of a stingless bee I harassed when I went to the botanical gardens with Troy Piggins late last year. I am pretty pleased with the first one and I think it might end up on a wall in my study

Details: 5DMkIII, MPe65, diffused 580EXII, 1/200, f14, ISO400

[Larryp (Laurie)]

Great macros!

[rmuhlack (Richard)]

wow!

[Octane (Humayun)]

Magical images, Andrew.

And, that quality of light is breathtaking.

Superb work.

H

[ourkind (Carlos)]

Stunning images WOW!

[astro_south (Andrew)]

Thanks guys. I didn't get many keepers, but these I am happy with

[iceman (Mike)]

Wow, #1 is stunning. WB Andrew!

[originaltrilogy (Petr)]

Beautiful colours. I did not know there was stingless bee!

Is manual focus or automated?

[StephenM (Stephen)]

That first one is fantastic Andrew! Definately one for the wall!

Cheers,
Stephen

[lacad01 (Adam)]

Super macros Andrew, light, colour, focus - very nice

[astro_south (Andrew)]

Originally Posted by originaltrilogy

Beautiful colours. I did not know there was stingless bee!

Is manual focus or automated?

Hi Petr

The lens used was a specialist macro lens - the Canon MPe 65mm. This has no auto focus, therefore focus involves moving the equipment in and out until what you want to capture is in focus and pushing the button. Sounds easy, but with the weight of the camera + lens + flash + flash bracket, all handheld and working in tight spaces and not wanting to scare your target away (usually only a handfull of cm between the front off the lens and the subject) it does take practice.

The lens can magnify the image, starting at 1:1 and finishing at 5:1 and the images above were taken at around 2-3x from memory. The stingless bee is fairly small at around 5mm long (to give you a feel for the scale) shown in the above pics.

[Osirisra (Ken)]

Stunning! love both shots.

[Astro_Bot]

Brilliant shot, that.