Thanks guys. Sorry, I meant to be a bit more informative in my first post, but was dead tired when I posted this.
I got in touch with the local amateur beekeepers' association, and our hosts, Andrew and Rosabel, kindly offered to allow us the opportunity. They were extremely enthusiastic and helpful. Even pulled out some impressive camera gear of their own and took some shots. We had a bit of a break from the heat, and they showed us inside a bit of a studio. Wow! They have their own huge printer, I imagine similar to the one H has? Room was filled and covered wall to wall with massive canvases and prints of their own work. Some truly beautiful family portraits and magnificent cityscape panoramas. Andrew and I just had our jaws on the ground the whole time.
When we first arrived, we were both a bit apprehensive I think. Not knowing what to expect. I think Andrew was about to cry and going to back out, to be honest, so I had to "man up" and show him the way.
It was a bit tentative at first, moving in slowly, not sure if we were going to stir the bees up or if they were going to be tame enough to get really close. They played along and we did get pretty close. Much closer than you see in the above early shots. I actually bumped a few of them a couple of times with my flash. They did get a bit grumpy a couple of times, so we just backed away for a bit until they calmed down.
All of my shots above are of the workers, the females. Good setup for the blokes, this bee-society. The males (drones) just bum around home, not leaving the queen. The women do all the work. The way it should be.
Andrew's shot above of the different looking bee is the male drone. Much bigger, woolier, and bigger eyes covering more of the head. Very cute, too.
The hive had brood in it, not much honey. So they were a bit reluctant to open the main hive. The shots above with the honeycomb was to show us one that had been infected with hive beetles. Nasty. They were trying to get those bees to transfer to another hive.
Neither of us got bitten. Phew. I did have a few angrily investigating and buzzing my face, so I backed off. Bit tricky pushing face up to the mesh mask and trying to look through viewfinder to focus. But do-able. Andrew was using LiveView with great success as you can see. He's a bit more of a master at that than I am. And with the gloves on, bit awkward but did manage. Very hot and sweaty.
On the technical/critical side, I was surprised how few keepers I got with the MPE65. I was kind of expecting there to be so many bees that it was like shooting fish in a barrel. But not so. Still a hive of activity (see what I did there?
). Got many more keepers with the Sigma 150 and tubes on, bit more working distance. However I think with that extra distance, even my diffusers on the MT24EX weren't sufficient and the lighting was a bit more harsh. Disappointed there. I should have switched to 580EXII and bigger Softbox maybe. Or umbrella and off-camera flash. Next time.
So our hosts were most gracious and there was talk of "a next time". Andrew and I commented that you probably wouldn't want any more than 2 photographers there at a time. Was pretty close working space.
That's one more thing ticked off my "bucket list". Happy chappy.
... though it was mighty hot in the getup though!
