You will not understand how frustrating a shot like this is until you try it. I wanted the bee to be completely separated from the flower. No touching at all. The flowers are a bunch of bolted broccoli in my garden. I set my tripod up with my 180mm macro and started trying to follow the bees around (there were lots of them). AF is useless on a macro so it is all manual and trying to anticipate where the bee was going. That strategy didn't work. After a few hundred attempts I settled on picking a nice set of flowers and waiting for a bee to come to it. This worked much better (consider it a tip for those wanting to try). You had to be patient and it seemed the bees KNEW which flower you were looking at and wouldn't go there on purpose, but eventually one couldn't resist and you'd quickly take a burst and hope one had the right focal plane. The 5D2 is limited here because of its slow fps. You'd have a lot more luck if you could take 7 or 10 fps in getting the right frame as the bee flies into the scene.
POST: Three fourths in the last seven entries. Getting kinda old... :P
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Place: 4 out of 168 Avg (all users): 6.8790 Avg (commenters): 8.1538 Avg (participants): 6.7869 Avg (non-participants): 6.9683 Views since voting: 3519 Views during voting: 291 Votes: 124 Comments: 21 Favorites: 4 (view)
Jason, I wanted to leave you a comment earlier but no time. Per your usual hallmark work in excellence, the striking impact of this image comes in the form of crisp detail and lighting across his body and the beautiful timing of his flight. Wow! The surrounding environment of the flower seems overly bright to me but that would be my only nattering naybob nitpick.
I promised myself I wouldn't tease about yet another 4th place as my sense of humor probably isn't appreciated as much as I think it is.
The "fun" factor of the skateboard and the metal nuthouse props may be lacking in this image, but personally I enjoy seeing your models portrayed in a more natural setting.
So, did you really need me to tell you "well done" yet again?! Probably not, but that's my two cents anyways...
this is totally brilliant .. so difficult to get ..
bees .. they move so quick, they spend only seconds on a flower and i agree with you, they tease you .. catch me if you can .. !!
i was pretty excited to get beeline but yours is so much better ..
congrats on such a unique and amazing image and the hm .. :)
Sometimes bugs are overdone in macro challenges, and certainly I've seen enough praying mantis over the last couple of months to last me a lifetime. The beauty of this shot is that it's an action shot on a fast moving (small) subject, and you have the focusing absolutely perfect. Clearly there is nothing "staged" about this shot, and I bet you waited a long time to get one so sharp. The colour palette is great, and the border really add something too (normally I don't like borders much). Great lighting, and a nice overall balance. Top ten, possibly top 5, maybe even a ribbon. Good luck for a strong finish.
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