Photographing Bees
– Bee Photography
.
Bee photography isn’t quite as simple as it seems. In fact it was pretty tedious. I started photographing bees last summer and was able to capture a few good ones. I told my 15 year old son about my project, and he insisted the phone camera could do a better job.
I took this as a challenge! Now I had to prove to him that real cameras and professional photographers are still useful.
It seems honeybees have been making a comeback this year, at least in Colorado. Last year, I wrote of the sad absence of bees. They all but disappeared until late into the season. But this summer has been an entirely brighter picture. Bees abound! Perfect for bee photography.
My garden consumes the entire yard including the ‘hellstrip’ on the street-side of the sidewalk. Bees love everything I’ve planted, especially Sage, Agastache and the Asclepias Curassavica (commonly known as milkweed). It’s funny to notice how different flowers effect bees. A friend pointed out that honeybees get a little drunk and noticeably slower as they imbibe on Agastache. People passing by my garden were slowed this summer too as many stopped to watch frenzied bees in action.
Bee photography in flight.
I started out using a Nikon 105mm macro before switching to a 400mm zoom. The bees seemed more comfortable the farther away I was. I shot at a high ISO even in daylight in order to increase both shutter speed and aperture. Most images displayed here were exposed using 2500 ISO at 1/4000 sec f9. Even at f9, the depth of field was pretty minimal (I made lots and lots of almost focused shots). And even1/4000 second was not enough to stop a bees wings in flight. After many hours of photographing bee behavior, I began to think like a bee anticipating their movement.
Absolutely gorgeous photography Edward! Love this project and you.