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Bees, Dark & Light (3 images)


k-hawinkler

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K-W,

 

Impressive shots with an impressive rig. Excellent image quality and the lighting is fine for each one. The sharpness is also incredible.

 

Paul

 

+1. Very nice.

 

Tri:)

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  • 2 weeks later...
what sort of shutter speeds, aperture and iso did you need to get these..... I presume the critters wouldn't keep still...

 

 

Hi thighslapper,

 

Thank you very much.

 

Well, the bees spend on average about 10 to 15 seconds to load up on water. Although they move around quite a bit and also get disturbed primarily by the bees of the other color, they sometimes sit still for several seconds.

 

I need to set up the camera rig about 5 feet from the water source. I put on just the right number of extension rings so that I am well within the normal close focus distance of the lens but the Televit knob gives me almost a foot in focus range, just enough to cover the extent of the little water reservoir we keep filled up for birds, bees, ants, etc.

 

If one gets real close to the bees they feel disturbed and move around more or frequent another water source. Also the late afternoon sun heats up the air and the bees are not as docile. Final consideration, parts of the water source are being in the sun or shade of nearby trees. As there is always wind here in the spring, that makes for always changing but interesting lighting conditions.

 

So to answer the specifics of your question. I use the lens wide open at f=5.6. That gives me the most amount of light for accurate focusing through the CLA'ed Visoflex III. Having the Viso cleaned and correctly adjusted is really a necessity. I find it actually works very well.

 

Having a shallow depth of field isolates the subjects beautifully and doesn't slow me down by first focusing wide open and then changing the aperture to a smaller diameter. The knob on the Televit gives extremely precise fine control over the focusing once one has adjusted the ballhead of the tripod to point the lens to the spot where bees currently are. I also find that attaching the grip to the tripod head is very advantageous as then the lens is supported very close to its center of gravity and requires only minimum amount of force for fast and precise repositioning.

 

ISO = 640. The first image has an exposure time of 1/350 s, the second image 1/750 s.

 

Best, K-H.

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Bees seem to be de rigeur...;) Excellent result. Using a long lens for macro has many advantages.

 

Hi Jaap,

 

Many thanks. I agree.

 

One of the many advantages in this case seems to bee (intentional) that I haven't been stung yet. :D:):cool:

 

Best, K-H.

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