Bees in flight.

[StillFocus]

Springtime to me has always been the best time for outdoor photography. There's always some neat little critters just waiting to be captured. Today I was visiting my grandma and caught sight of some rather large bees playing in her yard:



I used my 55-200 at 200mm, 5.6 aperture, 1/800 exposure, 200 iso. I shot on continuous, holding down the shutter release while constantly adjusting the focus. I also had a lot of patience... Went b&w in post because I thought it looked neat.

[Barbara V]

Not an easy shot to get! You're brave!

[tadthephoto]

I know how difficult it is to get moving subjects in the frame at 200mm, so well done, it must have taken a lot of patience. Bees are colourful subjects, I am not sure sure your B&W treatment does justice to it.

[StillFocus]

The reason I went b&w on this particular image is because it was a bit too dark for any real color to show up anyway. He had just ducked into the shade when I snapped it, but I liked the way it turned out in the end. Here's another I shot of the same bee seconds later:



And here's one I did today:



It's actually a lot of fun to shoot these little buggers. I do it at 200mm because it's incredibly difficult to get close to them without them flying away, and even then they only hover for a few seconds at most. The autofocus hates them so you have precious little time to focus in manually and fire off as many shots as you can before it disappears.

Edit: Somehow I missed this one the first time I perused the shots I did today, but this is easily the most detailed image I captured.

[El_Musikero]

Wow! Great timing.. i love the shot.

[freybear3]

Originally Posted by Barbara V

Not an easy shot to get! You're brave!

i agree! very hard

[Gaurav Prabhu]

Very Good. I can understand the efforts & patience gone it the shots.

[KenRC51]

love the shot, aren't you afraid of getting stunned?

[minimidge]

Jeez, I can barely get shots of these things when they're sitting still!
At least with 200mm you can keep a distance away.

[Edsport]

This one was done with my 18-55mm lens and a 12mm extension tube. With this setup i have to get really close...