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And The Bee

June 3, 2020 7 Comments

DSC_3858.jpg

I wasn’t going to post this picture. I almost didn’t even take this picture. It’s not my favorite photo, and in fact I would say I don’t even like it that much at all. However, despite everything I don’t really care for in this image I thought I would share it here anyway as kind of a progress pic. Sort of.

Here’s the deal. Or the background, rather. In June of 2014 I took this shot of a honeybee approaching a magnolia flower which was the first of its kind I was ever able to get. I got it with nothing more than my humble little D200 and 50mm f/1.8 lens in a mostly unexpected act of photographic serendipity. It’s kind of a neat photo, but one thing I wish I could have gotten better was a full image of the bee. That picture was almost the shot I wish I could have gotten. Almost, almost…but not quite.

Ever since then I have thought about how cool it would be to get a shot of a bee sipping nectar from a flower, or hovering close to a flower, or something, anything, involving a bee and a flower. But man, those shots are difficult! Or at least they are for me, since there’s probably more I could do to get those types of shots that I just don’t know about. Or, more accurately, am too lazy to do on a regular basis :)

Anyway, if I ever see flowers and bees and happen to have my camera I always try to catch that white whale, photographically speaking, and while it’s never really happened to my satisfaction I keep trying hoping to one day get the shot I’ve been thinking about for years. In the meantime I need to learn to keep practicing, and also be happy with the pictures I am able to get even if they’re not what I would consider ideal or even all that great. They’re pictures that I made, and that’s not nothing :)

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Tom Curry says

    June 3, 2020 at 8:31 am

    Hello, Simon.
    I think that’s a perfectly acceptable picture of a bee and flower. For me, it would be a “keeper”.
    My question though, would be “how did you get so close with a 50mm lens? My Nifty 50 has a minimum focus distance of about 12”. Was it cropped to bring it in closer?
    Just curious.

    Reply
    • Simon says

      June 3, 2020 at 10:02 am

      Good question, Tom. I used a close-up filter on my 50mm lens which lets me get a lot closer than normal. Those filters are very cheap but require a lot of practice to learn how to use effectively. An actual macro lens would be great, but for now I just use those filters. I did crop it a little too.

      Reply
      • Tom Curry says

        June 3, 2020 at 6:53 pm

        Thank you, Simon.
        I have a 35mm Macro and a Tokina 100mm Macro. Have a lot of fun with those.

        Reply
  2. Rebecca Burlingham says

    June 3, 2020 at 9:13 am

    This is a great photo. Bees are hard to catch. You have to be in a high shutter speed to freeze the wings, high burst rate to catch every movement and continuous focus, because they don’t sit still. It’s almost like photographing kids.

    Reply
    • Simon says

      June 3, 2020 at 10:03 am

      Hahaha! You’re right–it’s just like photographing kids! They move about the same speed as buzzing bees :)

      Reply
  3. Carolana Rehse says

    June 3, 2020 at 11:15 am

    Ha! I thoroughly enjoyed your article, as well as, the comments. Count me in as one who hunts for bees. My dream is to capture a bee just as he comes in for a landing. What do you think my chances are?

    Reply
    • Simon says

      June 3, 2020 at 11:37 am

      Well, like my dad always says, with a little patience anything is possible. Though in the case of photographing bees, I’d say it takes a lot of patience!

      Reply

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