Bee behavior and optical opportunism

Images of undisturbed subjects in their natural environment. All subject types.

Moderators: rjlittlefield, ChrisR, Chris S., Pau

leonardturner
Posts: 713
Joined: Thu Mar 14, 2013 11:40 am
Location: Atlanta, GA, USA

Bee behavior and optical opportunism

Post by leonardturner »

While enjoying some weak early spring sunshine recently two bees came into view; one disappeared, perhaps into the ground foliage, and the other took station two or three feet above the ground and held a remarkably steady position for what seemed a long time, perhaps two or three minutes; long enough for me to get nearly 40 images. I suspected this represented some sort of show-off mating behavior, but have no idea really. Is this common, and understood?

The only lens I had was a new 200-500 mm zoom which worked rather better than I expected for this situation. Camera handheld, existing light. Two of the images were manually stacked to maintain a degree of sharpness on both ends of the bee.

Image
Nikon 810; Nikon 200-500 f5.6.

JL
Posts: 157
Joined: Sun Feb 02, 2014 10:15 am
Location: Houston, Tx

Post by JL »

Really a nice picture, the unfocused background certainly makes the bee pop.

leonardturner
Posts: 713
Joined: Thu Mar 14, 2013 11:40 am
Location: Atlanta, GA, USA

Post by leonardturner »

Thanks, JL. At 500 mm and f5.6 (wide open for this lens), even a relatively close background remains nicely out of focus. On the downside, the bee is foreshortened by the telephoto, making him look even more squatty. But it was an interesting experiment.

peterkinchington
Posts: 162
Joined: Mon Apr 25, 2011 4:28 am
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Contact:

Post by peterkinchington »

Always a challenge to get insects in flight. You have done very well.
Try, try again. Fall down nine times get up ten.
www.peterkinchington.com

leonardturner
Posts: 713
Joined: Thu Mar 14, 2013 11:40 am
Location: Atlanta, GA, USA

Post by leonardturner »

Thank you, Peter! Serendipity was my friend--

Post Reply Previous topicNext topic