Bumblebee & Pink Flower

[creativechaos]

I was at the zoo and happened upon this cute little bumblebee pollinating a flower. Unfortunately, I was on auto because I was snapping pics of my son at the playground! LOL

I like how the shot turned out. I love the pink against the green, but I'm just not sure about everything else. Any input would be appreciated.



Exif:

FujiFilm FinePix S700
8/10/09 2:37pm
1/160sec
F 3.5
63.3mm
ISO: 64
Flash: Did not fire

[creativechaos]

Can anyone help? I'm really trying to get better and I'd love to know what I could have done to make this shot better.

[emtab]

Ok creativechaos, here's my opinion as to the issues with this shot.
The main aspects which are an issue that jump out at me are:
1. Focus: it's hard to tell from the posted pic but I don't see an area of sharp focus. It might be that the petals are in sharp focus but they're still not what I would call sharp .
2. Exposure - detail disappears around the right side of the bee's head against the flower.

Hope that gives you somewhere to work from.
reagrds,
emtab

[JFSanders]

If you are serious about getting better. Then find and purchase "Close-up and Macro' by Robert Thompson. After you read and understand the principles of Aperture, Exposure and ISO. And how they work together and are interdependent on each other in the production of a photograph. Then you need to understand the principles and properties of light. Then you get to composition of subject matter. Then you get to post processing. And then you begin to understand that you don't do brain surgery with a hammer. Basically your camera isn't designed to make macro photographs. It will do a ok job if you work in manual mode and set your F/stop to the highest possible so as to get the greatest depth of field. This will get more of your subject into the focus plane. Then you need to set your shutter speed to allow for enough light to properly expose the capture. And it will only work if the speed is high enough to stop the action. Then the ISO will limit the other two variables. If you have to go to a very high ISO it will introduce noise into your capture and this will have the same effect as blurring but not as bad. Looks grainy. Get the book and read. Most likely you will find yourself wanting a DSLR with interchangeble lenses so that you can get the proper tool for the job.

I made this capture with a Fuji S-5100 back when I started.



And that is just ok. You can see all kinds of artifacting and chromatic aberration. But when I did it I was amazed. So don't get discouraged. Make the commitment to get the most out of your equipment and when you can get no farther it is time to get better tools.

[creativechaos]

emtab - That's it! LOL It's the bee's head! I don't know why I didn't spot that before, I guess I was just overlooking the dark of the bee with the dark part of the inner part of the flower... make sense? But you're right, the bee isn't quite sharp.

JFSanders - You're right. I want a DSLR....I wish I could afford one. It's on my wishlist, but I gotta wait till bills get paid...I was hoping I'd take longer to find the limitations of my camera LOL

I figured this camera would be decent to re-learn manual (I had it in high school, but I graduated 14 years ago.) Thanks for the book info. That I'm sure I can afford to pick up. I have always loved photography, but didn't keep up with it much after high school as I didn't really think I had any subject matters. (Not thinking that the world around me is subject enough! Silly me, what was I thinking!)

Any other great books to check out? I've looked through some at the local library, but they weren't exactly up-to-date like I'd hope.