Bumblebee Sunflower

[Ewie]

Here's a photo I managed to get this morning of a Bumblebee collecting pollen from a Sunflower. I've seen a few of these hanging around our garden but was lucky enough to have this one stay put for just long enought to get a shot. It's my first ever attempt at macro wildlife photography.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kwozzie_nz/2241680164/" title="Bumblebee by kwozzie_nz, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2242/2241680164_24db44f6bd.jpg" width="500" height="323" alt="Bumblebee" /></a>

EXIF:
Camera: Sony Alpha A100 + SAL50M28 Macro lens (50mm F2.8)
Capture: 1/250sec @ F4, ISO100, Aperture Priority, Spot Focus, Centre Weighted Metering

I only had time for a hand held shot and the tall skinny flower was moving around a little in the breeze.

I would like feedback on DOF and composition, perhaps some suggestions for next time. The bee blends in with the colours of the flower, is there a way I could have metered differently to expose him a bit better?

The bee's may be around for a while yet so I'm planning on leaving the camera close by with the macro lens fitted.

[jiminyClickit]

Ewie,

For the situation, you might have been able to get a flash-fill or reflector to cast more light on bee. If your camera is like many, you might have gotten closer for more detail. You may have to decide if having most of the sunflower in the photo means a smaller bee and less interesting view.

For speed and light, I'd move fast with camera set, left hand moving bee on bloom into Sun, shoot. One second move.

Post work can improve your bee.

[wulf]

I think this photo struggles with DoF and lighting. I think the way forward is to play with full manual mode and take full control of the different aspects of capturing a good exposure.

Firstly, I think you need to use a smaller aperture. The bee looks reasonably well in focus but there is too much blurred, distracting flower in the frame. f/8 or even f/11 might be better.

Of course, if you stop down like that the camera gets a lot less light so you have to compensate with ISO and shutter speed. You have a very low ISO setting but, since a scene like this calls for sharp detail rather than perfect smoothness, you can afford to push that up a bit. ISO 400 would not be unreasonable and is unlikely to have a detrimental effect on the final result.

That will compensate for a couple of notches of aperture adjustment (f/4 -> f/5.6 -> f/8) but the subject is also too dark as it is. Therefore, you also need to make the shutter speed a bit lower. I think you could go at least a couple of notches slower and possibly more before camera shake becomes a problem (although it depends also how fast the bee and flower head are moving).

Finally, what about the fact that these alterations will leave some sections over exposed? Change your point of view so that you don't have so much light stuff in the background or try to find a flower with more light shining on it.

For reference, here is a bee shot I took with a yellow flower as a background; the lighting was more direct which gave me the luxury of a faster shutter speed and I can't remember what the aperture was (manual lens - I think I stuck with f/8 all that day but DoF is still too small here):

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/wulf/2241113827/" title="Honey Bee on Yellow Flower by basswulf, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2089/2241113827_2042c687c9.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Honey Bee on Yellow Flower" /></a>

Note that this has also had some post processing - view it on Flickr for a link to the original.

Wulf

[Ewie]

Thanks guy's for your feedback and a lot of good advice. I'll be watching out for the bees again today and will have another go. :)